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Facts  and  Fancies  About  Art 
Pictures  ^    <?    ^    #   # 

TOGETHER  WITH 

A  PLAIN  GUIDE  TO 

SKETCHING  FROM  NATURE  IN 

WATER  COLOR 

By    J.    IVEY 


THE    WHITAHER    ®.    RAY     CO, 
SAN    FRANCISCO 


LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


ft,/ 


TALKS  IN  MY  STUDIO 


&rt  of  Seeing 

JFarts  anfc  Janncs  about  3lrt 


TOGETHER  WITH 


A  PLAIN  GUIDE  TO  WATER-COLOR  PAINTING 
AND  SKETCHING  FROM  NATURE 


BY 

JOHN    IVEY 


UN  IV      SITY 


SAN   FRANCISCO 
THE  WHITAKER  AND  RAY  COMPANY 

(INCORPORATED) 

1903 


COPYRIGHT,  1903 
BY  J.  IVEY 

ALL  BIGHTS  BESEBVED 


TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF 

THE   JOHN  IVEY  WATER-COLOR   CLUB 

OP 
PORTLAND,  OREGON 

THIS   HANDBOOK   IS   INSCRIBED   BY   THEIR 
DEVOTED   SERVANT 

THE  AUTHOR 

MONTEKEY,  CALIFORNIA 
January  1, 1903 


118996 


SENEflAl 


PREFACE. 

THIS  little  volume  is  intended  to  replace  the  author's 
Plain  Guide  to  Landscape- Painting  in  Water-Colors,  With 
Helpful  Hints  for  Viewing  Nature  and  Art,  which  met 
with  a  flattering  reception,  and  is  exhausted.  In  the 
original  preface  to  the  "  Guide"  the  author  said:  — 

"  The  author  of  this  '  Guide '  to  a  most  fascinating  art 
justifies  its  publication  on  the  modest  ground  of  its  sim- 
plicity. It  is  compiled  with  the  endeavor  to  impart  to 
the  amateur  the  fundamental  knowledge  which  is  neces- 
sary to  enable  him  to  become  a  master,  and  to  help  all 
lovers  of  nature  to  discern  her  subtlest  beauties  and  her 
most  secret  revelations,  in  order  that  they  may  be  quali- 
fied to  estimate  the  excellencies  and  faults  of  landscape 
pictures.  Its  limits  and  scope  preclude  the  possibility  of 
including  instruction  in  drawing,  and  its  omission  must 
not  be  held  to  imply  that  we  do  not  appreciate  the  im- 
portance of  drawing  and  design. 

"  Experience  has  taught  us,  however,  that  the  study 
and  practice  of  color  frequently  serve  to  awaken  an 
interest  in  Art,  which  the  drier  study  of  drawing  would 
not,  and  they  certainly  help  a  student  to  select  that 
branch  or  form  of  Art  for  which  he  is  best  fitted.  More- 
over, the  charm  of  color  encourages  the  beginner  to  more 
frequent  practice  of  drawing  from  nature  than  he  would 
otherwise  do,  while  concurrently  with  the  practice  he 
will  use  one  of  the  many  admirable  handbooks  on  Per- 
spective, to  acquaint  himself  with  its  rules,  and  it  must 
be  admitted  that  it  is  only  by  practice  that  the  facility  of 
drawing  can  be  acquired. 

"  Since  water-color  has  asserted  itself  in  the  hands  of 
many  of  the  world's  great  modern  masters  as  the  best 
medium  of  interpreting  the  tenderest  and  most  charming 
passages  of  atmospheric  effects,  and,  moreover,  has  been 

5 


6  PREFACE. 

proved  to  be  absolutely  permanent  in  character,  there  is 
naturally"  a  rapidly  increasing  interest  exhibited  toward 
it  on  the  part  of  all  lovers  of  pictures  and  of  wealthy 
collectors,  and  the  author  would  humbly  hope  that  this 
little  handbook  may  contribute,  in  some  measure,  to  the 
development  of  an  art  which  is  particularly  adapted  to 
transcribe  and  repeat  atmospheric  glories  of  the  *  Golden 
West.'" 

To  the  instruction  intended  for  beginners  is  now  pre- 
fixed the  substance  of  some  lectures  delivered  before 
the  Chautauqua  assemblies  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  and 
other  literary  associations,  as  well  as  some  talks  in  my 
studio,  which  generally  were  suggested  by  the  eager 
inquiries  of  pupils.  J.  I. 

MONTEREY,  CALIFORNIA, 
January,  1903. 


CONTENTS. 

PART  I. 
TALKS  IN  MY  STUDIO. 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  AET  OP  SEEING 11 

CHAPTER  n. 
FACTS  AND  FANCIES  ABOUT  ART 26 

CHAPTER  III. 
PICTURES 35 


PART   II. 

A  PLAIN  GUIDE  TO  WATER-COLOR  PAINTING  AND 
SKETCHING  FROM  NATURE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

A   FEW  GENERAL  REMARKS,   WITH  TABLE  OP   HARMONY  OP 
COLORS 43 

CHAPTER  II. 
EXPLANATION  OF  SOME  TERMS  USED  IN  PAINTING  ...»         45 

CHAPTER  III. 

LIST  OF   MATERIALS,   WITH    USES   OF  THE  VARIOUS   COLORS 
DESCRIBED 53 

CHAPTER  IV. 
ON  MIXING  COLORS,  WITH  LIST  OF  USEFUL  COMBINATIONS  .    .    62 

CHAPTER  V. 

ON  BROAD  WASHES  FOR  SKIES,  SEA,  FLAT  DISTANCES,  ETC.     .    73 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI.  PAGB 

ON  VARIOUS  MEANS  AND  METHODS,  "TAKING  OUT,"  "SCUM- 
BLING," "GLAZING,"  "SPONGING,"  "SCRAPING,"  "PAINT- 
ING OVER,"  ETC 78 

CHAPTER  VII. 
ON  SKETCHING  PROM  NATURE  .  .    83 


PART  I 

TALKS  IN  MY  STUDIO 


PART   I. 

TALKS   IN   MY   STUDIO. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    ART    OF    SEEING. 

THE  study  of  Nature  and  Art  is  so  full  of  pure  and  un- 
alloyed enjoyment,  so  wrapped  about  and  intertwined 
with  what  is  most  enchanting  to  the  eye  and  heart  of 
man,  —  touching  by  mystic  charm  of  light  and  form  and 
color  the  higher  sentiments,  —  that  it  must  at  least  be 
interesting  to  all;  but  it  is  my  endeavor  here  to  make  it 
as  practical  as  possible,  so  that  those  who  may  desire  to 
tread  in  the  pathway,  and  to  listen  to  the  message  of 
the  Great  Spirit  of  Beauty  in  the  world,  may  be  helped  in 
their  devotion  and  encouraged  in  their  practice. 

There  are  few  places  on  God's  earth  where  the  art  of 
seeing  can  be  better  fostered  than  in  California. 

It  is  not  alone  in  the  transcendent  sublimity  of  her 
mountains,  climaxed  in  the  snowy  summits  of  the  Sierras, 
surrounding  the  awe-inspiring  grandeur  of  the  Yosemite, 
where  rainbows  are  multiplied,  and  the  eternal  voice 
of  many  waters  from  falls  and  cataracts  speaks  out 
the  message  of  indescribable  sublimity,  nor  in  her 
cultivated  valleys,  where  orange  blossoms  fill  the  soft 
atmosphere  with  their  seductive  perfume,  and  the  ram- 
pant glory  of  her  roses,  and  almost  every  other  flower 
that  blooms  on  this  fair  earth;  'tis  not  alone  in  these 
extremes  of  her  favored  grandeur  and  beauty  that  one  is 
transfixed  with  admiration  and  delight,  but  in  her  more 
commonplace  garb  and  environments.  The  sunshine 
and  soil,  the  ozone  and  the  zephyrs  gently  borne  from 
the  measureless  sea  which  kisses  her  coast,  make  life  one 
continuous  pleasure;  and  those  provided  with  means  of 

11 


12  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

modest  dimensions  —  the  poet  and  painter,  the  preacher 
and  toiler  —  may  almost  everywhere  find  their  highest 
ideals,  —  to  some,  presenting  visions  of  poetic  fancy,  and 
to  others,  of  practical,  unexampled  plenty. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  rapid  development,  in  these 
Far  Western  homes,  of  those  things  which  mark  the  high- 
est standard  of  culture  and  refinement  in  the  older  cities 
of  the  East  and  in  Europe.  In  no  country  and  in  no  age 
of  the  world's  history  has  there  ever  been  exhibited  such 
a  quick  cultivation  of  literature,  music,  and  art  among 
new  and  mixed  and  busy  colonists  as  this  state  of  Cali- 
fornia reveals,  and  it  should  be  its  happiest  and  most  de- 
lightful feature,  that  with  the  natural  haste  to  grow  rich 
its  people  should  laudably  desire  to  surround  themselves 
in  their  homes  with  the  beautiful  and  artistic,  without 
which  riches  are  valueless  indeed. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  which  so  surely  indicates  the 
measure  of  a  people's  advancement  in  the  more  culti- 
vated phases  of  civilization  and  refinement  as  the  home, 
just  as  there  is  nothing  which  yields  so  much  pleasure 
and  actual  enjoyment  to  its  possessor. 

The  home  in  which  books,  pictures,  and  music  are  con- 
sidered the  most  essential  embellishments  must  neces- 
sarily hold  in  closer  affection,  and  foster  in  nobler 
instincts,  the  growing  sons  and  daughters  of  the  house- 
hold, than  the  home  whose  glory  is  only  decorative  tin- 
sel and  showy  furniture.  There  are  homes  in  every 
Western  city,  of  course,  in  which  such  things  are  found, 
but  it  must  be  confessed  they  are  much  rarer  than  the 
size  and  condition  of  our  cities  warrant  one  to  expect, 
and  in  multitudes  of  cases  the  lavish  expenditure  exhib- 
ited in  the  showy  decorations  of  mantels,  carpets,  uphol- 
stery, etc.,  is  a  bitter  rebuke  to  their  owners  for  the 
total  absence  of  literature  and  pictures.  Such  a  house 
is  like  a  pretty  idiot.  It  is  not,  however,  the  writer's  in- 
tention to  discuss  the  matters  of  artistic  decoration  and 
intellectual  appointments  of  a  home,  but  rather  to  di- 


THE     ART    OF    SEEING.  13 

rect  attention  to  some  of  the  silent  revelations  of  beauty 
which  are  so  constantly  before  us,  and  which  are  so 
eminently  qualified  to  educate  a  discerning  mind  into 
just  and  enjoyable  judgment  and  appreciation  of  things 
beautiful  both  in  nature  and  art. 

There  is  nothing  so  conducive  to  true  judgment  in 
matters  of  pictorial  art  as  the  practice  of  watching  the 
phases  and  moods  of  nature,  whether  of  atmosphere  upon 
the  landscape,  or  of  passion  upon  the  human  face  and 
figure.  An  eye  trained  to  such  watchfulness  will  soon 
discover  both  the  meaning  and  the  faults  of  pictures 
which  the  ordinary  beholder  of  nature's  surface  will  be 
unable  to  discern,  and  will  revel  in  enjoyments  to  which 
the  other  is  necessarily  a  stranger. 

Let  me  recall  to  your  mind's  eye  a  very  common  effect 
in  this  country,  after  the  rains,  when  the  parched  brown 
of  the  foothills  responds  to  the  magic  touch  of  the  rain- 
drops in  a  burst  of  rapturous  color.  If  you  have  not 
stood  exactly  where  I  will  take  you  for  a  moment,  you 
have  stood  before  similar  effects  many  times  each 
winter. 

A  few  days  after  my  arrival  in  Los  Angeles  in  Novem- 
ber, 1887,  and  just  as  soon  as  I  was  miraculously  deliv- 
ered from  the  tender  mercies  of  a  host  of  Philistines, 
called  real-estate  men,  I  found  myself,  one  Sunday  morn- 
ing, strolling  cityward  on  Washington  Street,  far  out 
beyond  the  Rosedale  Cemetery.  It  was  after  the  first 
rains,  and  I  felt  full  of  the  delicious  vitality  and  charm 
which  the  first  rains  give. 

Sauntering  off  the  road  to  peruse  an  interesting  an- 
nouncement which  offered  a  big  bargain  to  the  first  man 
who  came  quick  enough  with  a  deposit,  I  came  to  the 
edge  of  a  pool,  a  lodgment  of  the  rain  in  a  hollow,  a 
pool  just  sixteen  yards  across,  and  in  it,  or  upon  it,  was 
a  vision  of  loveliness  that  I  shall  never  forget.  I  have 
lingered  by  the  silvery  mirrors  of  other  lands,  and  have 
haunted  the  richest  bits  of  dear  old  England's  lakes  and 


14  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

streams,  —  the  inspiration  of  poets  and  the  paradise  of 
artists,  —  but,  except  on  one  occasion,  when,  riding  past 
the  garden  of  the  poet  Wordsworth,  I  saw  the  glory  of 
a  most  perfect  reflex  in  Rydal  Water,  I  had  never  seen 
anything  surpassing  this.  Such  a  vision  of  pure  and 
tender  color  in  water,  with  such  perfect  definition  of 
detail,  it  is  impossible  to  describe,  and  until  you  take  an 
opportunity  of  looking  into  that  or  a  similar  pool,  with 
your  face  cityward,  you  cannot  realize  the  enchantment. 

At  my  feet  was  the  ethereal  blue  of  a  rapturous  sky, 
and  against  it  was  the  spotless  snow  of  Old  Baldy's 
crown,  glistening  under  the  sheen  of  the  water  like  a 
celestial  thing.  The  pearly  gray  shadows  of  the  mon- 
arch beneath  it  came  out  with  the  sharpness  and  clear- 
ness of  a  touch  of  a  pencil,  while  all  the  great  range  from 
Garvanza  to  Rialto  was  as  clear  and  defined  as  the 
stones  in  the  foreground.  The  city  came  next,  its  turrets 
and  towers  clear-cut  against  the  gray  of  the  mountains; 
its  red-painted  roofs  and  the  interspersed  foliage  looking 
as  bright  as  the  blush  of  a  maiden.  Then,  fringing  the 
face  of  the  city,  were  line  upon  line  of  pepper  and  tall 
eucalyptus,  interspersed  with  the  gables,  and  chimneys, 
and  windmills  which  stretch  'twixt  Washington  Gardens 
and  Rosedale;  then,  sombody's  tomb,  glistening  white  in 
the  sunlight,  surrounded  by  others  less  pompous,  and  at 
the  far  edge  of  the  mirror,  the  tender,  sweet  shoots  of 
new  herbage  and  grasses  reflected  their  modest  new 
beauty,  and  when  I  looked  up,  and  glanced  at  the  vision 
reflected,  I  fell  into  wondrous  amazement,  and  knew 
not  which  most  to  admire, — the  substance,  or  only  the 
shadow. 

The  undefined  and  inexpressible  thrill  of  the  artist  as 
he  looks  out  upon  the  rolling  foothills  in  their  vernal 
beauty,  or  upon  the  mountains  melting  in  the  golden 
glory  of  our  common  sunsets,  is  as  much  above  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  millionaire  as  he  counts  his  gold  as  is  the 
reality  of  the  rippling  laughter  of  your  little  child  at 


THE    ART    OF    SEEING.  15 

play  to  the  forced  guffaw  of  a  salaried  clown.  It  is  a 
pleasure  which  sweetens  life  in  poverty,  lightens  life  in 
care;  and  although  art  is  not  religion,  nor  a  substitute 
for  religion,  yet  it  is  religion's  noblest  and  most  spiritual 
handmaid,  inasmuch  as  she  interprets  to  multitudes  of 
men  who  are  too  blind  to  see,  or  too  indifferent,  the  won- 
derful revelations  of  sea,  and  sky,  and  land;  catching 
the  sweet  whisperings  of  the  tender  leaflets,  and  the 
music  of  the  sea-wave  on  the  beach;  translating  the 
awful  splendor  of  the  sky  at  eventide,  when  piled-up 
clouds  rise  above  the  mountain  tops,  —  both  cloud  and 
mountain  capped  and  fringed  with  the  radiance  of  tinted 
light,  —  or  when,  in  the  lower  sky,  great  plains  of  molten 
silver  seem  to  tremble  in  dazzling  brilliancy,  until  the 
flashing,  throbbing,  twinkling  rose,  and  purple,  and  ame- 
thyst are  blended  into  the  pearly  grays  and  tender  sea- 
greens  of  the  sun's  final  whispered  "good  night." 

And  even  the  solemn  pleasures  of  the  night  season 
she  interprets,  when  day-dreams  of  imaginary  wrong  are 
dispelled  by  the  host  of  stars  which  in  their  silent  twin- 
klings remind  us  of  the  hope  in  the  sublime  allegory, 
"  As  one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory." 

It  is  my  humble,  delightful  province  to  sit  always  at 
the  feet  of  the  Great  Master  in  the  world's  landscape- 
studio,  and  my  duty  here  is  to  reveal  something  of  the 
glory  and  the  teaching  of  that  phase  of  beauty  alone. 
Do  not  think  that  I  place  this  branch  of  art  above  all 
others,  or  that  I  insufficiently  esteem  the  rest.  One 
artist  will  linger  most  about  the  modest  lilies  of  the  field, 
and  make  them  repeat  the  sweetest  message  of  the  uni- 
verse, "Consider  the  lilies,"  etc.;  another  will  translate 
the  charm  of  a  pretty  waking  child  at  sunrise,  and  pos- 
ing the  little  one  before  a  world,  will  repeat  again  the 
everlasting  utterance,  "For  of  such  is  the  kingdom"; 
while  another  must  needs  look  out  upon  the  general  face 
of  nature,  remembering  that  first  grand  verdict,  He  "saw 
that  it  was  good."  So  each  in  his  special  sphere  shall  be 


16  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

opening  blind  eyes,  touching  silent  chords,  and  leading 
the  multitude  into  the  inner  courts  of  the  great  temple 
of  beauty. 

I  deem  it  advisable  at  once  to  define  what  Landscape 
Art  really  is, — that  is,  what  the  art  of  landscape-paint- 
ing really  means,  —  and  some  readers  may  be  unprepared 
to  hear  that  it  is  not  a  mere  reproduction  of  a  given  area 
of  the  surface  of  nature;  it  is  not  merely  a  copy  of  a  given 
scene  or  view,  however  faithfully  and  truly  it  may  be  re- 
produced; if  it  were  that  only,  it  could  not  claim  superi- 
ority over  the  mechanical  art  of  the  photographer.  It  is 
more  than  an  accurate  transcript  of  nature's  surface;  it 
is  not  compassed  or  expressed  by  the  cranky  methods  of 
Preraphaelites  or  Impressionists  (although  the  latter 
school  is  infinitely  nearer  the  truth  than  the  former),  but 
it  is  the  translation  into  color  of  the  artist's  emotions  as 
they  are  invoked  by  the  influence  of  the  scene,  as  the 
great  spirits  of  light,  and  wind,  and  moisture  play  upon 
it.  What  wizards  of  enchantment  these  are!  Let  but  a 
solitary  beam  of  morning's  silvery  light  fall  upon  a  green 
rush  by  the  gray  water's  edge,  and  the  true  artist  catches 
the  inspiration,  and  with  it  unfolds  a  picture  of  nature's 
harmony  in  silver  and  grays,  which  captivates  a  multi- 
tude. Wind!  Let  but  a  cool  breath  sweep  up  from  the 
sea  at  hot  noontide,  making  the  dry  ripe  corn  rustle  like 
the  leaves  of  a  forest  in  an  Eastern  October,  and  the  neg- 
lected dead  leaves  of  your  eucalyptus  to  whirl  in  crisp 
music  as  in  the  joy  of  a  glad  resurrection,  and  the  artist 
will  need  no  further  incentive  to  touch  into  lovable 
beauty  of  action  the  flowers  and  grasses  and  leaves  of  a 
commonplace  "  lot."  And  then  the  Moisture!  What  an 
immeasurable,  unutterable,  thing  to  the  artist!  How  in- 
significant is  everything  else  in  comparison!  Without  it, 
the  world  could  be  done  in  chalk,  but  not  in  color. 

An  artist  practicing  landscape-painting  without  a 
poetic  appreciation  of  the  effect  of  moisture !  What  a 
parody!  How  pitfable!  But  the  artist,  looking  out 


THE    ART    OF    SEEING.  17 

upon  the  jagged  and  rugged  fringe  of  the  Sierras  yonder, 
sees  moisture  woven  into  tender  gossamer  garments  about 
their  feet,  and  into  thinnest  veils  of  floating  mists;  and 
his  translation  of  that  mountain  view  is  not  a  correct 
outline  of  its  altitude  and  features  only,  or  chiefly,  but 
is  a  revelation  of  the  charm  of  its  beauty,  as  his  keen 
perception  saw  moving  light,  and  soft  cloud-shadows, 
and  filmy,  fleecy  things  of  sky  and  sea  play  hide  and  seek 
among  the  crevices  and  hollows  of  the  great  mountain's 
side.  It  is  not  the  subject  of  a  picture  which  charms  and 
captivates  most,  but  its  treatment.  A  little  rivulet  caught 
babbling  among  the  nodding  grasses  and  blushing  violets 
of  its  shady  bed,  and  dropping  with  only  whisperings  of 
its  sweet  music  o'er  a  common  stone,  can  be  made,  by  one 
who  sees  and  feels  the  thing,  and  who  knows  that  in  his 
palette-box  he  has  a  chord  responsive  to  every  sweet 
utterance  of  the  rippling  rill  and  to  every  enchantment 
of  its  flower  and  moss  strewn  pathway,  a  picture  worthy 
of  a  nation's  honor;  while  he  who  sees  only  the  material, 
and  has  not  realized  the  truth  that  in  landscape  art  a 
shadow  is  more  important  than  the  substance,  and  a 
poem  is  more  worthy  than  mechanical  exactitude,  may 
paint  a  cataract  upon  a  mile  of  canvas,  yet  fail  to  touch 
a  single  chord  or  sentiment  of  human  hearts. 

Just  as  the  temperament,  passions,  and  circumstances 
within  and  without  a  man  play  upon  his  features,  so  do 
atmosphere  and  its  conditions  play  upon  the  face  of 
nature,  and  no  true  portrait-painter  would  consider  a 
measured  outline,  with  careful  interlineation  of  observant 
marks  and  shadows,  of  a  sitter  the  highest  art.  His  art 
enables  him  to  breathe  the  spirit  of  his  subject  on  the 
canvas,  and  the  same  principle  is  good  in  landscape  to 
an  extent  far  beyond  popular  appreciation;  and  not  only 
can  no  student  ever  take  a  step  toward  success  in  art 
who  does  not,  at  the  commencement  of  his  study,  accept 
and  understand  this  principle,  but  no  person  can  ever 
become  a  judge  of  any  picture — or  even  ever  acquire  the 


18  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

faculty  of  enjoying  a  good  picture  to  the  fullest  extent— 
without  recognizing  this  principle,  and  it  is  in  the  ex- 
pression of  this  poetic  element  of  nature  in  landscape 
that  water-color  excels.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
that  a  medium  so  delicate  and  pure  in  character  should 
be  found  the  best  adapted  to  express  the  tenderer  and 
more  subtle  effects  of  atmosphere  and  color,  while  at  the 
same  time  its  wonderful  transparency  gives  it  a  capacity 
of  any  required  strength  and  force. 

Of  course,  all  accept  the  above  proposition  in  the  mat- 
ter of  violent  agitations  in  nature,  such  as  storms,  both 
on  sea  and  land,  and  in  such  plain  variations  of  effect  as 
morning  and  evening;  but  I  desire  to  make  plain  to  you 
far  subtler  things,  and  for  the  purpose  (in  the  absence  of 
actual  illustrations)  must  rely  on  description.  Some 
years  ago,  four  artists  of  my  acquaintance  —  all  good 
landscapists,  three  of  them  men  of  considerable  reputa- 
tion— were  together  in  a  very  popular  hunting-ground 
of  men  of  the  brush.  At  a  turn  of  the  road  they  came 
upon  a  simple  cottage,  with  barn,  stable,  and  other  simple 
outbuildings,  which  appealed  to  them  all  as  a  good  fore- 
ground subject,  and,  true  to  the  sudden  instinct,  they 
pitched  their  sketching-stools  on  a  bit  of  rising  ground, 
and  each  deciding  on  his  composition,  found  themselves, 
in  a  few  minutes,  removed  from  each  other  only  a  few 
yards,  perhaps  the  two  farthest  from  each  other  only 
fifteen  yards.  At  the  next  annual  exhibition  of  water- 
colors,  the  four  pictures  were  hung  in  the  same  room, 
and  although  they  attracted  considerable  attention  be- 
cause of  their  merit,  they  were  only  recognized  as  being 
transcripts  of  the  same  location  by  &  few  of  the  public, 
because  each  artist  had  revealed  in  color  what  lie  felt  in 
the  subject  most,  although  he  had  not  in  the  slightest 
degree  falsified  the  subject.  The  cottage  was  on  the 
fringe  of  a  corn-field  which  sloped  toward  the  west,  and 
at  that  western  boundary  was  the  shadowed  bed  of  a  little 
stream,  from  which,  on  the  opposite  side,  rose  abruptly  a 


THE    ART    OF    SEEING.  19 

hillock,  fern-covered,  and  with  jutting  bits  of  gray  gran- 
ite. One  artist  caught  the  play  of  light  upon  the  golden 
waving  corn,  and  wove  upon  his  canvas  a  harmony  of 
rich  yellows,  with  telling  chords  of  gray  and  purplish 
olive  in  the  shadowed  distance,  using  the  front  of  the 
cottage  only  to  strengthen  the  composition.  Another 
was  struck  most  by  the  mysterious  shadows  in  that  hol- 
low beyond  the  field,  and  he  subtly  worked  out  their 
sympathetic  utterances,  using  the  corn  only  as  a  path- 
way for  the  eye  up  to  and  into  the  soft  hollows  of  the 
thick  brush  and  sleeping  willows.  The  third  caught  the 
glinting  sunlight  on  the  little  window-panes;  the  half- 
opened  lattices  with  white  blinds  telling  wonderfully 
against  the  dark  shadows  of  the  room;  the  gate,  half- 
open,  seemed  really  to  swing  upon  its  hinges;  a  strag- 
gling bit  of  creeping  ivy  which  grew  over  the  gable 
chimney-top  caught  the  bright  sunlight,  and  a  few 
touches  of  orange  light  upon  its  vivid  greenness  made  it 
almost  move  to  the  soft  wind,  —  the  whole  emphasized  by 
a  deep  shadow  across  the  rough  yard.  He  produced  only 
the  bright  country  homestead,  —  the  important  elements 
of  the  other  works  being  here  treated  very  simply  and 
subserviently.  The  fourth  artist  sat  the  lowest,  and  he 
was  moved  most  by  the  tender  outlines  of  the  semi- 
distant  hillock,  with  its  broken  crevices  against  a  sky 
trembling  in  all  the  beauty  of  opalescent  light;  making 
the  cottage  a  strong  foreground;  the  corn-field  became 
partially  blotted  from  his  view;  he  united  his  strong  fore- 
ground to  the  tender  distance  by  an  imaginary  narrow 
pathway  through  the  corn  (the  only  liberty  taken  with 
the  truth  of  the  subject  by  the  whole  four  men),  and  his 
composition  became  a  totally  different  thing  from  the 
other  three.  The  pictures  naturally  suggested  such 
characteristic  titles  as  — 

"The  Poetry  of  Motion." 

"There  is  no  Place  like  Home." 

"A  Golden  Pathway."     (You  see,  he  gave  most  promi- 


20  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

nence  to  his  bit  of  idealization,  yet  led  the  beholder  to 
the  point  of  distance  which  was  his  inspiration.) 

"The  soft  and  silent  shadows  lure  to  love  and  dreams." 
Now,  there  is  no  desire  in  the  heart  of  a  young  art 
student  greater  or  more  earnest  than  that  of  being  able  to 
sketch  from  nature.  There  is  a  fascination  in  the  thought 
of  being  able  to  put  on  paper  or  canvas  a  pictorial  repre- 
sentation of  the  things  we  see,  particularly  of  the  scenes 
which,  through  the  eye,  fill  us  with  pleasure  and  admira- 
tion; yet  how  few  are  there  among  those  who  learn  the 
principles  of  drawing  and  perspective,  and  who  learn  to 
paint  from  copies  with  more  or  less  degree  of  excellence, 
who  are  able  to  sketch  and  color  the  landscape  which 
they  most  admire,  or  any  part  of  its  appealing  beauty; 
and  it  would  be  amusing,  if  it  were  not  so  painful,  to 
see  the  young  beginner  engage  on  his  first  and  even  his 
twentieth  essay. 

His  first  great  difficulty  is  to  decide  where  to  begin, 
how  much  to  put  in,  and  after  an  almost  sickening  wan- 
dering from  point  to  point  in  search  of  something  that 
he  cannot  define,  he  either  gives  the  matter  up,  and  con- 
soles himself  with  the  thought  that  it  is  not  just  the 
scene,  after  all,  to  make  a  picture  of,  or  that  his  paper  is 
not  quite  large  enough  to  embrace  the  view  he  selected, 
or  that  the  time  of  day  is  not  favorable  to  begin,  or  that 
he  will  be  able  to  select  a  more  suitable  and  an  easier 
subject,  he  folds  up  his  materials  and  awaits  another  op- 
portunity. He  knows  all  about  the  base  line,  the  hori- 
zontal line,  the  point  of  sight,  the  vanishing-point,  and 
the  rest  of  it,  but  they  all  get  so  mixed  up  in  his  contem- 
plation of  the  multitude  of  things  he  sees  in  that  land- 
scape, that  his  ambitious  spirit  quails,  and  his  artistic 
capacity  seems  smaller  than  he  thought  it  to  be.  Many 
times  the  world  has  had  to  lose  an  artist  because  such 
eager,  loving  efforts  have  not  been  helped  by  a  word 
of  true  and  practical  suggestion.  It  is  not  because  that 
young  beginner  does  not  know  the  rules  which  should 


THE    ART    OF    SEEING.  21 

guide  him  in  deciding  where  and  how  to  begin  his  sketch, 
but  he  does  not  know  how  to  apply  them.  Perhaps  the 
simple  illustration  given  under  "  Sketching  from  Nature  " 
may  be  useful  to  such  persons  in  the  future,  and  serve  to 
make  their  study  of  perspective,  etc.,  plainer  and  easier. 

In  helping  your  child  to  the  practice  of  a  noble  char- 
acter you  are  not  incessantly  reiterating  the  decalogue, 
nor  intoning  a  creed,  but  by  a  sweeter,  subtler  process 
show  him  the  beauty  and  simplicity  of  nobility,  honor, 
and  truth;  so  to  that  eager,  trembling  aspirant  to  artistic 
fame  there  is  a  more  practical  method  of  guidance  and 
help  than  by  the  eternal  insistence  upon  scientific  law, 
yet  which  must,  of  course,  be  in  accord  with  and  illus- 
trative of  that  severe  law  of  linear  perspective,  which 
must  ultimately  become  his  easy,  friendly,  infallible 
guide. 

Now,  a  few  words  of  advice  as  to  how,  and  where,  and 
when  to  look  for  revelations  of  beauty  and  of  tender 
shadowings  as  from  out  of  the  invisible.  In  the  con- 
stant sunshine  of  these  Western  skies  it  is  specially  need- 
ful to  watch  for  the  occasions  of  atmospheric  changes,  for 
they  are  fewer  and  more  fleeting  than  in  more  humid 
climes.  Each  day  presents  the  sublime  panorama  of 
mountain  peaks,  and  rolling  foothills,  and  valleys  gar- 
nished with  the  luscious  fruitage  of  a  second  Eden;  but 
to-day,  yesterday,  and  to-morrow  the  unwatchful  ones 
will  see  only  the  same  face, — the  same  glory, — while  he 
who  is  wise  enough  to  look  will  see  that  face  move  and 
radiate  with  passion  and  pathos,  smiles  and  tears.  The 
sea-fog  comes  up  at  eventide,  and  with  silent  finger 
touches  in  places  the  fringes  of  palm  and  the  gum  trees, 
and  trickles  its  moisture  into  the  folds  of  the  corn  stalks ; 
then  up  in  the  morning  betimes,  and  looking  out  east- 
ward, see  Earth  throwing  kisses  to  a  silvery  sunrise,  or 
from  the  pearly  shadows  of  a  canon  see  that  solemn  sea- 
fog  rise  up  in  sparkling  cloudlets,  like  incense  ascending 
to  wreathe  itself  about  the  bright  Shekinah.  Or  if,  at 


22  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

eventide,  before  the  sun  lies  down  upon  the  glittering 
liquid  couch  of  yon  Pacific,  you  have  perceived  a  fog 
dispersed  out  seaward,  or  have  discerned  some  broken 
clouds  in  the  north  and  northwestern  sky,  then  look  for 
the  sure  transformation  that  will  follow,  when  color 
rampant  will  sometimes  overawe  the  soul,  at  other  times 
will  whisper  cadences  of  heavenly  lullabies  to  troubled 
minds. 

But  not  only  at  sweet-smiling  morn,  or  at  the  poetic 
time  of  evening's  blushes,  shall  the  watcher  be  rewarded. 
No!  no!  At  times  there  is  a  sleepy,  dreamy  haze 
about  the  mountain  crests  and  chasms  which  must  be 
reproduced  on  canvas  by  grays  of  poetic  tenderness  and 
purity;  at  other  times  they  clothe  themselves  in  deep- 
toned  vaporings  of  blue,  or  bluish  purples,  or  neutral 
bluishness,  and  seem  to  stand  so  near  that  you  can  fancy 
you  hear  their  echoes  of  your  voice;  while  here,  by  the 
silvery  beach,  the  artist  looks  not  upon  an  eternal  mo- 
notony of  tumbling  waters,  but  ever  and  anon  he  catches 
in  the  liquid  mass  a  passage  of  unusual  color,  a  deepened 
shadow  in  the  hollow  of  the  swell,  an  opalescent  sparkle 
of  a  bit  of  wind-swept  foam,  an  emerald  green  behind  the 
curve  of  a  breaking  wave,  and  in  the  receding  snowy 
little  foamlets  at  his  feet  he  sees  a  frolic  and  hears  a 
laughter  like  the  charm  of  little  children  at  their  play. 

The  world  is  very  beautiful.  To  all  of  us,  the  Great 
Spirit  of  Beauty  passes  at  times  very  near,  and  we  see 
and  feel  the  sweep  of  her  ethereal  garments;  but  to  those 
only  who  look  for  the  vision,  and  who  seek  to  understand 
her  message,  does  she  vouchsafe  her  greatest,  her  sweetest, 
witchery  and  revealment.  In  all  ages — everywhere — the 
love  and  cultivation  of  art  has  sweetened  and  uplifted 
the  generations  of  men;  but  it  was  reserved  for  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  prove  —  and  proved  it  has  —  that  land- 
scape art  reveals  most  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  has  the 
noblest  mission  in  the  interpretation  of  the  infinite  mes- 
sage of  creation. 


THE    ART    OF    SEEING.  23 

These  are  no  common  platitudes;  ask  the  youngest 
student  of  the  art  if  his  first  lessons  have  not  opened  his 
eyes  to  see  daily  visions  to  which  he  was  blind  before,  and 
to  receive  pleasures  from  the  perusal  of  the  world's  great 
poet-painters  of  which  he  had  not  conceived  the  possi- 
bility. 

Whether  you  cultivate  the  art  and  power  of  making 
pictorial  memoranda  of  the  things  you  see  and  love,  or 
not,  do  this,  at  least :  try  to  discern  the  variety  of  hue 
and  color  of  light,  half-lights,  and  poetic  shadows  in 
which  the  world  is  clad ;  wait  not  for  the  rampant  glory 
of  a  crimson  sunset,  or  the  quiet  beauty  of  a  new  crea- 
tion, as  in  the  morning  (each  morning)  God  speaks  a 
new  day,  "Let  there  be  light!"  but  from  your  cottage 
porch  see  revelry  of  silent  shadows  as  the  mid-day  breeze 
sweeps  in  among  your  garden  trees,  and  watch  the 
countless  changes  of  color  in  the  restless  radiance  of  the 
breaking  waves.  See  how  dancing  sunlight  blots  out 
the  green  upon  your  corn-leaves  and  makes  them  glitter 
with  the  burnished  whiteness  of  a  Damascus  blade,  and 
the  thick  stalks  of  the  dead  mustard-brush  glitter 
'mid  its  branch  tracery,  like  the  sheen  of  silver  rods. 
Be  not  content  to  count  the  golden  fruitage  of  your 
orange  trees,  nor  rest  quite  satisfied  with  the  discernment 
of  their  ripening  beauty,  but  look  into  the  deep,  dark 
shadows  of  the  leafy  hollows,  and  see  how  wondrously 
the  juicy  greens  are  multiplied  by  the  reflected  lights. 
Everywhere  try  to  discern  the  half-hidden .  passages  of 
beauty,  and  listen  ever  to  the  whisperings  of  the  great 
Teacher's  message;  so  shall  your  hearts  throb  with  a 
purer  joy,  your  understandings  be  quickened,  your  an- 
ticipations be  intensified,  of  the  glory  which  "eye  hath 
not  seen,  nor  ear  heard." 

And  now  a  final  word  directly  upon  the  method  of 
viewing  Art.  (Of  course,  the  scope  of  my  remarks  is 
limited  in  this  special  handbook  to  landscape  art,  or  that 
branch  particularly.) 


24  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

I  repeat  that  it  is  a  degradation  of  the  conception  of 
art  to  hold  that  the  essence  of  art  is  imitation.  It  is  the 
function  of  the  artist  to  create.  It  is  the  representation 
of  the  ideal  under  the  forms  of  the  actual;  of  the 
spiritual  within  the  material.  This  must  be  acknowl- 
edged and  felt  by  every  one  who  would  see  the  artist's 
meaning  in  his  work. 

In  first  looking  at  a  picture,  view  it  as  a  whole,  and 
from  a  distance  of  several  times  its  own  length,  where 
possible.  You  may  afterwards  look  into  it  minutely, 
for  purposes  of  criticism  or  of  education,  but  first  try  to 
discern  the  main  character  of  the  picture.  It  is  true, 
you  may  not  discover  any  distinctive  character  in  it,  for 
the  reason  that  it  has  none,  but  let  us  suppose  that  it 
has,  that  it  is  the  work  of  a  competent  and  conscientious 
poet  of  color,  and  that  in  it  there  lurks  a  sentiment  of 
that  poet's  soul.  And  let  me  here  ask  you  to  assent  to 
this  philosophy  without  reserve  and  to  enforce  your 
assent  by  historic  proof.  In  a  man's  works  we  can 
recognize  the  man.  Take,  for  instance,  such  examples 
as  Fra  Angelico,  who  painted  angel-faces  and  sweet 
forms  of  perfect  purity  in  such  a  way  as  to  perpetuate 
their  chaste  dreams  through  generations  of  men,  because 
he  lived  a  life  of  transparent  simplicity  and  truth;  while 
Salvator  Rosa  painted  strong  canvases  of  revolting 
ghastliness  and  depression,  because  he  was  defiled  by 
malignant  passion,  and  lived  a  boisterous  revel  life  with 
the  bandits  and  brigands  of  Abruzzi. 

This  spirit  and  life  of  the  man  in  his  work  is  what 
should  be  seen,  and  the  capacity  for  such  discernment 
should  be  first  eagerly  cultivated;  by  this  means  the 
color-utterances  of  their  respective  canvases  will  have 
special  meanings,  and  their  messages  will,  by  their 
poetry  and  music,  convey  sweet  understanding.  The 
religious  aim  and  perfect  artistic  power  of  Giovanni 
Bellini,  the  solemn  and  severe  spirit  of  Michael  Angelo, 
the  sweet  joyousness  of  Raphael,  the  luxurious  high- 


THE    ART    OF    SEEING.  25 

toned  temperament  of  Rubens,  and  the  marvelous  com- 
prehensiveness of  the  culture  of  Sir  Frederick  Leighton, 
are  the  first  things  exhibited  to  connoisseurs  by  their 
respective  works. 

It  may  be  urged  that  opportunities  for  the  study  of 
such  high  examples  are  few  and  distant;  let  this  be 
granted,  yet  the  principle  remains,  and  in  your  oppor- 
tunities there  shall  be  found  examples  of  spirit  and  life 
behind  paint  and  manner,  and  a  "still,  small  voice"  of 
enchanting  solace  and  enjoyment  shall  speak  to  you 
from  out  the  canvases  of  many  neglected  geniuses. 

It  will  be  well  always  to  remember  that  it  is  the  pre- 
eminent duty  and  aim  of  all  true  artists  to  reveal  to  men 
the  half-hidden  beauty  and  glory  of  the  universe;  but 
the  multitude  too  often  disdains  their  efforts,  and  denies 
their  power,  until  they  pass  into  the  greater  and  sublimer 
glory  of  the  unseen.  David  Cox  was  humbled  to  the 
painting  of  a  sign-post  for  his  daily  bread,  and  only  after 
his  death  could  the  blind  host  of  boasted  connoisseurs  see 
wind  and  moving  vapors,  with  wonderful  expansiveness 
of  feathery  moorlands  and  mottled  skies,  in  the  bits  of 
rapid  water-colors  which  now  they  buy  with  heavy 
checks;  and  "  Millet,  from  his  modest  cottage,  did  noble 
work,  and  preached  to  France  for  years,  under  the  dis- 
piriting silence  and  contempt  of  his  country,  the  doctrine 
of  the  true  intrinsic  grandeur  of  manhood  and  the 
sanctity  of  toil,"  but  when  the  "  silver  cord  was  loosed  " 
and  the  deft  fingers  silent,  the  mob  of  educated  art 
patrons  flung  useless  roses  on  his  tomb,  and  vouchsafed 
their  vulgar  honor  of  his  worth  by  giving  a  fortune  for 
The  Angelus  to  a  stranger  who  probably  had  never  con- 
tributed a  cent  to  the  great  artist's  toil. 


CHAPTER   II. 

FACTS   AND   FANCIES   ABOUT   ART. 

Landscape  Art. 

I  WOULD  almost  claim  for  landscape  art  a  proud  pre- 
eminence, for  several  reasons;  the  first  being  that  it 
reflects  most  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  again,  it  is  always 
chaste,  and  pure,  and  elevating.  "  Landscape,  in  its  most 
naked  simplicity,  can  never  be  lewd  or  immodest."  The 
nude  CAN  be  made  revolting;  landscape,  never!  While, 
in  every  other  realm  of  art-creation  and  its  utterance, 
realism  can  become  something  worse  than  vulgar,  in  this 
there  is  only  one  spirit,  one  message.  It  is  the  spirit  of 
light  moving  among  the  trees  of  the  garden. 

It  was  upon  outline,  form,  the  human  figure,  that  the 
great  artists  of  the  past  devoted  their  genius  and  achieved 
their  immortality.  And  I  would  direct  your  attention 
to  the  fact — not  always  appreciated  —  that  to-day  no 
artist  hand  is  cunning  enough  in  this  wide  world  to 
outvie  the  perfect  conceptions  of  the  old  Grecian  sculp- 
tors, such  as  have  outlived  the  long  centuries;  and  that 
the  most  ambitious  students  of  art  in  this  vaunted  nine- 
teenth century,  the  world  over,  are  sitting  at  the  feet  of 
artists  dead  for  two  thousand  years,  and  are  faithfully 
copying  the  clear  lines  and  proportions  of  the  human 
form  laid  down  for  them  on  the  banks  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean centuries  before  Christ  pointed  men  to  the  lilies 
and  the  corn-fields. 

The  universal  consensus  of  cultivated  people  is,  that  in 
beauty  of  outline,  in  matchless  expression,  in  absolute 
perfection  of  delineation,  the  art  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
stands  unapproachable,  as  yet,  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  But  no  landscape  had  been  pictured,  lusterful 
with  the  radiance  of  light  and  tuneful  with  the  melody  of 

26 


FACTS    AND    FANCIES    ABOUT    ART.  27 

motion.  The  Raman  artists  ministered  to  the  sensuous 
senses  of  a  later  people  with  gorgeous  palette  and  glowing 
hues;  Rubens,  Titian,  and  Raphael  made  the  after  cen- 
turies radiant  with  their  brilliant  devices  of  color  and 
the  poetic  composition  of  their  groups:  but  yet  no  land- 
scape. And  for  many  centuries  after  the  Christian  era 
the  world's  art  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  painting  either 
the  majesty  of  a  mountain,  the  awful  power  of  a  sea-wave, 
or  the  checkered  lights  and  shadows  of  a  moving  forest. 

Color  in  Dress. 

There  came  into  my  studio  to-day  a  perfect  vision  of 
beauty,  a  very  dream  of  fair  womanhood,  radiant  with 
the  sweetness  of  health,  and  a  voice  like  the  music  of 
silver  chords ;  but,  oh !  what  a  spasm  of  murderous 
color,  —  not  vulgarly  loud,  but  with  silent  profanity  out- 
raging every  canon  of  taste,  and  despoiling  this  goddess 
of  exquisite  charm.  Why  will  not  the  builders  of  dresses 
and  head-gear  acquire  the  knowledge  of  contrasts  in 
delicate  tintings  and  shadings  ?  And  why  will  culture 
and  wealth  perpetuate  spasms  and  colic  in  color? 

Now,  if  I  were  a  sweet  little  blonde,  I  would  dictate  to 
my  milliner  thus,  and  my  dressmaker  thus:  "I  shall 
have  a  black  bonnet  this  time,  M'selle,  with  a  tip  of  the 
softest  white  ostrich,  and  just  one  or  two  flowers  of  red 
shaded  deep  in  their  hollows;  not  pink,  M'selle,  because, 
you  see,  I  have  just  a  wee  bit  of  color."  Or,  "A  light- 
blue  bonnet  this  time,  M'selle, — very  light,  if  you  please, 
like  that  bit  of  sky  yonder,  below  that  delicate  light 
cloud;  and  put  in  a  few  flowers  of  white,  but  be  sure  not 
to  mix  them  with  pink  or  with  violet."  Or,  "A  green 
bonnet  this  time,  for  a  change;  for,  you  see,  I  have  been 
in  the  country,  and  have  grown  quite  rosy;  and  trim  it 
with  pink  flowers,  if  you  please,  not  red." 

Again,  if  I  were  a  pretty  brunette  (or  homely),  I  'd 
say:  "No !  not  that,  thank  you  !  it  has  too  much  blue  in 
it;  nor  that,  for  I  cannot  look  well  in  so  much  violet; 


28  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

but  this  cream-yellow  is  just  what  I  need,  particularly  as 
the  front  hair  is  now  so  heavily  shown.  And  just  trim  it 
quite  loosely  with  ribbons,  not  flowers,  of  violet  or  blue." 

Or,  "JVo,  I  prefer  this  broken-orange  hat.  I  know  it 
suits  a  brunette.  And  trim  it  with  ribbons  and  flowers 
of  a  soft,  quiet  blue,  which  have  no  glisten  or  glinting 
upon  them,  but  the  colors  quite  dead." 

And  with  my  gown  I  'd  be  just  as  exacting,  and  all,  of 
course,  should  be  matched  with  the  bonnet,  and  the  bon- 
net to  it.  This  is  an  element  of  woman's  rights  I  heartily 
advocate,  and  would  have  them  renounce  a  thousand 
others  to  master  this. 

Practice  of  Color. 

I  think  it  can  be  abundantly  proved  that  too  long 
delay  in  painting  from  nature,  while  the  whole  attention 
is  confined  to  severe  study  in  perspective,  the  antique, 
and  modeling,  produces  academicians  instead  of  artists; 
frequently  blots  out  the  inner  conceptions  and  ideals 
which  would  have  expressed  some  of  nature's  most  poetic 
inspirations. 

The  wondrous  charms  of  nature  are  certainly  designed 
to  convey  thoughts,  and  ideas,  and  poetic  sentiments  to 
the  human  mind,  far  beyond  those  of  the  mere  sense,  and 
the  student  is  not  likely  to  make  less  progress  in  the 
mechanical  department  of  his  study  because  he  at  the 
same  time  is  cultivating  the  capacity  and  aptitude  of 
giving  expression  to  the  higher  elements  of  truth  and 
beauty. 

While  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  adopt  the  best-known 
rules  and  methods  for  the  guidance  of  students  in  art 
generally,  we  are  equally  bound  to  admit  that  conven- 
tional methods  are  not  always  to  be  preferred.  Were 
that  the  case,  originality  would  suffer,  and  genius  fre- 
quently be  smothered.  Indeed,  America  would  suffer 
immeasurably,  for  her  artists  could  not  study  the  models 
adopted  in  the  European  schools,  and  would  be  denied 


FACTS     AND     FANCIES    ABOUT    ART.  29 

the  possibility  which  I  claim  for  her,  —  of  establishing  a 
new  school,  as  original  and  as  true  as  that  of  the  Greek 
or  the  Dutch. 

Character. 

A  more  incorrect  statement  was  never  uttered  than 
that  which  is  too  generally  believed,  that  the  life  of  the 
artist  is  proverbially  marked  by  passion,  vice,  and  loose 
morals.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  men  absorbed 
entirely  by  the  charms  of  their  imagination  should  often 
throw  aside  the  prejudices,  and  some  of  the  rules,  which 
govern  the  lives  of  other  men;  but,  search  through  the 
lives  of  those  who  really  deserve  the  name  of  artists,  and 
you  will  find  they  are  mostly  worthy  men — not  scorning 
religion,  although  maybe  holding  rather  contemptuously 
the  rigid  formulas  of  theology,  but  in  their  natures  and 
their  lives  cherishing  and  fostering  the  fruits  of  patience, 
long-suffering,  brotherly  kindness,  and  charity.  Tell  me, 
who  most  (beyond  their  mothers)  influence  the  hearts  of 
your  darlings  in  the  prattling  time  of  their  nursery 
education,  and  touch  their  sensitive  impulses  to  love 
things  beautiful,  and  guide  their  instincts  toward  kindly 
treatment  of  the  dumb  creation?  Why,  the  artist,  whose 
pencil,  touched  by  the  innocent  sentiments  of  childhood, 
designed  the  pictures  of  brutes,  and  birds,  and  flowers, 
which  are  the  gospel  of  the  babes.  Who  first  leads  the 
youth  into  the  restful  places  of  the  poets,  and  helps  him 
easiest  to  realize  the  music  of  their  song  and  the  deep 
wisdom  of  their  rhythmic  utterance?  Why,  the  artist, 
whose  deft  pencil  pictures  the  enchanting  bits  of  sleepy 
hollows,  and  laughing  hillsides,  and  babbling  rivulets, 
and  nodding  daffodils,  thus  making  the  world  to  the 
little  ones  appear  "a  thing  of  beauty,  a  joy  forever." 

Romance  in  Nature. 

In  nature,  as  in  life,  are  woven  facts  and  fancies;  truth 
and  fiction;  action  and  repose;  love  and  fear;  the  "still, 
small  voice,"  and  the  hurricane  of  sound;  the  love-songs 


30  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

of  nestling  birds  and  the  death-dirges  of  the  solemn  deep; 
the  laughing,  dancing  frolic  of  the  wild  flowers,  and  the 
somber,  silent  shadows  of  the  primeval  forests, — all,  in 
their  respective  ways,  appealing  to  human  hearts. 

In  nature,  as  in  life,  are  smiles  and  tears;  sweet 
cadencies  of  song  and  wail  of  angry  element;  romance  of 
light  and  shadow,  of  form  and  vapor;  stories  and  pictures 
of  witching  mirages,  as  real  as  many  tales  of  human  love; 
great  dramas,  painted  in  lurid  colors  on  western  skies; 
and  palaces  of  such  ethereal  splendor  and  enchantment 
as  Arabian  Nights  ne'er  conceived,  piled  up  against  the 
skies  in  snowy  purity  of  pinnacle,  dome,  and  minaret, 
peopled  with  ghosts  and  skeletons  of  the  hoary  past,  and 
echoing  stories  more  profound  and  thrilling  than  pen  can 
translate. 

Sir  Walter  Scott. 

What  a  flood  of  understanding  is  thrown  upon  the 
sweet,  simple,  constant  poetic  utterances  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  when  we  learn  that  his  invitations  to  close  friends 
at  Abbotsford  were  couched  thus:  "The  pleasure  of  your 
company  is  invited  for  tea  and  sunset."  When  the  labor 
of  his  day  was  ended,  and  he  sought  to  intensify  the  joy 
and  peace  of  rest  by  the  companionship  of  friends,  he 
knew  that  the  pleasant  babble  of  congenial  friends  could 
be  hushed  into  a  perfect  ecstasy  of  intellectual  expression 
and  enjoyment  by  the  shifting  splendors  of  declining  day. 

Pacific  Grove  and  Del  Monte. 

Such  inspirations  as  I  have  just  been  describing  may  be 
enjoyed  almost  anywhere,  but  there  are  places  where  it  is 
even  hard  to  escape  them,  and  of  such  places  Pacific  Grove 
is  queen.  Peaceful  as  the  consecrated  cloisters  of  an  abbey, 
glittering  with  a  more  delicate  sheen  of  liquidity  than  the 
garden  slopes  of  a  Venetian  palace,  odorous  with  health- 
giving  pine  incense,  fringed  with  a  border  of  exquisite 
beauty, — being  an  interlaced  pattern  of  rock-work  and 
herbage,  —  with  vistas  of  sand-dunes  and  cypress  within 


FACTS    AND    FANCIES     ABOUT    ART.  31 

easy  stroll  of  her  gates,  she  offers  a  more  perfect  repose, 
associated  with  the  tonic  of  social  and  intellectual  vitality, 
than  any  other  resort  on  our  Coast.  And  again,  does  not 
Del  Monte  belong  to  the  Grove?  Either  that,  or  the  Grove 
to  Del  Monte;  and  where  or  what  will  you  challenge 
against  itf  A  palace  of  luxurious  appointments  equal- 
ing in  charm  the  dream  of  Claude  Melnotte,  half-hidden 
by  cypress,  pine,  beech,  and  magnolia,  which  now,  in  the 
gathering  gloom  of  the  evening,  look  solemn  and  somber 
as  they  cast  their  long  shadows  across  the  serpentine 
pathways,  and  dappling  the  velvety  lawns  with  lines  and 
patches  of  purple. 

Here  and  there  are  rustic,  fantastic  lounges  for  lovers, 
all  framed  by  interlaced  tendrils  and  branches  of  vine- 
creepers,  and  only  disclosed  at  appropriate  corners,  or 
peeps  'tween  the  bending  branches  of  oak  trees.  To  the 
right,  a  road  shaded  by  pines  leads  to  the  fringe  of  the 
bay,  whose  waters  are  like  opal  and  turquoise  in  solution. 
Below  the  lines  and  clumps  of  young  foliage,  and  lapped 
by  the  whispering  wavelets,  sleeps  the  old-fashioned  town, 
Monterey. 

The  shadows  are  deepening,  and  one  expects  to  hear 
solemn-faced  owls  hoot  to  each  other  from  out  of  their 
secret  corners.  The  deep  crimson-red  blossoms,  which  here 
and  there  sparkle  'gainst  the  dark  and  polished  magnolias, 
look  like  fire-flies  stopped  on  the  wing,  and  the  clusters  of 
violets  which  embroider  the  grasses  are  turning  their  faces 
to  sleep.  A  charming  effect  is  produced  by  creeping  and 
clambering  wood-vines,  which,  catching  at  each  drooping 
bough,  climb  stealthily  upwards,  anxious  (like  all  weaker 
natures)  to  hang  on  something  sturdy. 

Through  their  intertwined  tendrils,  in  places,  there 
glitter  the  crimson  and  purple  of  the  western  sky. 
Fringing  the  coast  to  the  southward  are  the  grand,  old, 
fantastic,  and  velvet-clad  cypress,  with  the  half-ruined 
Mission  of  Carmel, — the  whole  presenting,  in  one  after- 


32  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

noon,  if  needs  be,  but  better  if  given  a  year,  an  antidote 
to  every  ill  that  flesh  or  mind  is  heir  to. 

Love  of  Nature. 

Of  course,  by  this  time,  you  must  have  perceived  that 
I  consider  the  fundamental  basis  of  all  art  to  be  an  un- 
quenchable love  and  an  untiring  study  of  nature.  No 
other  genius  than  one  gifted  with  such  a  love  and  devo- 
tion could  ever  convey  from  his  brain  to  his  brush,  and 
by  his  brush  to  the  common  multitude,  such  emotions  as 
those  pictures  convey.  It  is  true  that  many  pictures  are 
made  by  labor  and  studious  technique  which  are  pro- 
nounced good,  and  accepted  as  excellent  in  their  detail 
and  pleasing  color-arrangements;  but  I  am  compelled  to 
insist  that  their  excellence  is  purely  academic. 

You  will  admire,  of  course,  the  lustrous,  liquid  eyes  of 
her  to  whom  you  've  pledged  your  life,  and  write  long, 
sickly  sonnets  to  them,  whether  blue  or  brown;  but  only 
when  they  speak  to  you  the  spirit-song  of  love,  and  from 
their  silent  depths  you  hear  the  utterance  of  her  heart, 
do  you  perceive  the  highest  beauty  in  them.  So  't  is 
with  nature  and  her  devotees.  To  casual  eyes,  or  even 
interested  ones,  she  seems  a  pretty  dame  with  whom  a 
gay  flirtation  may  be  had  on  holidays,  and  to  whose 
general  charm  they  pay  the  tribute  of  conventional  praise; 
but  lovers  true  there  are,  who  deeper  look  into  her  eyes, 
and  reverently  share  her  smiles  and  tears;  and  who,  in 
turn,  receive  her  secret  confidence,  and  learn  the  subtle 
meaning  of  her  winsomeness,  and  all  the  pathos  of  her 
changing  moods;  who  learn  the  songs  she  sings  to  sweet- 
tongued  poets,  and  the  lullabies  she  plays  at  eventide  to 
nestling  birds;  who  love  her  when,  in  angry  mood,  she 
flings  great,  foamy  crests  upon  the  sands,  or  makes  the 
forests  tremble  with  the  shock  of  rushing  wind;  who 
linger  lovingly  about  her  path  at  all  times  and  seasons, 
and  never  cease  to  trace  upon  their  canvases  the  witching 
modulations  of  her  form  and  flushes.  'T  is  in  such  art  as 


FACTS    AND    FANCIES    ABOUT    ART.  33 

this  that  genius  flashes,  —  an  art  which  knows  no  school 
and  claims  no  fatherland. 

Landscape  and  Seascape. 

Of  course,  the  term  "landscape"  embraces  the  sea, 
which,  if  painted  alone,  should,  with  absolute  correct- 
ness, be  called  a  "  seascape."  I  embrace  in  the  term 
every  inanimate  vision  under  the  sky;  and  with  it,  that 
ethereal  nothing  called  "sky,"  with  the  moisture  and 
mists  it  holds  in  changeful,  bewildering  motion.  I  em- 
brace the  solemn  shadows  of  night,  when  tangible  things 
have  no  outline,  and  only  the  stars  are  reflected  in  still 
pools  of  water.  I  embrace  the  cold  rain,  which  dances 
in  bubbles  fantastic,  and  blots  out,  as  it  falls,  the  trees  and 
the  hills  it  enriches.  I  embrace  the  chilly,  great  fog- 
banks,  which  rise  in  thick  masses  out  seaward,  and  roll 
in  tumbling  battalions  o'er  the  hills  of  the  coast-line; 
which  drown  the  bass  roars  of  the  sea-lions,  and,  passing 
o'er  city  and  bay,  finally  trickle  their  moisture  into  chan- 
nels prepared  to  receive  it,  in  the  grass-blade  and  stalks 
of  the  wild  flower.  I  embrace  every  phase  of  creation  not 
instinct  with  animal  life;  for  this  great  faculty  of  art  can 
summon  forth  upon  the  canvas  the  spirits  of  all  things. 
Solemnity,  silence,  and  music  can  be  as  surely  portrayed 
as  a  rock,  or  an  oak,  or  a  mountain. 

Shadows. 

Study  shadows,  and  see  how  much  they  tell  of  radi- 
ances overlooked  and  contemptuously  neglected.  No 
unimportant  things  are  shadows  in  a  landscape.  With- 
out them,  art  could  not  exist,  and  nature  would  be  a 
sickening,  remorseless  monotony.  They  stand  behind  the 
grass-blades,  setting  off  the  brilliance  of  their  emerald 
beauty;  they  hide  themselves  between  the  fragrant  petals 
of  your  favorite  rose,  giving  richness  and  softness  to  the 
color's  blush;  they  respond  to  your  bidding  on  your  cot- 
tage porch,  where,  for  the  very  purpose,  you  have  twined 


34  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

the  eglantine  and  smilax,  and  in  their  dappled  softness 
you  dream  dreams  and  read  tales  of  love. 

Shadows !  They  are  the  grandest  things  about  us. 
Marching  in  the  heavens  in  cloud-battalions,  sweeping 
over  golden  corn-fields,  or  darkening  the  face  of  your 
great  fir  forests;  sleeping  beneath  the  mirror-surface  of  a 
pool,  or  peeping  for  an  instant  from  the  hollow  of  a  burst- 
ing sea- wave;  guarding  your  tired  eyeball  with  the  tender 
lid,  or  offering  their  repose  to  you  from  the  feet  of  a  great 
rock  in  a  weary  land,  —  shadows  deserve  your  study  and 
profound  esteem.  And  remember  it  is  only  in  the  shadow 
of  the  rain-cloud  that  we  discern  the  matchless  arc  of 
beauty  in  the  rainbow;  and  it  is  only  through  the  final 
shadow  of  the  valley  that  we  emerge  into  the  radiance  of 
eternal  light. 

Impressionism. 

Yes  !  Impressionism  is  a  worthy  phase  of  art.  A  true 
impressionistic  picture  is  the  work  of  genius  actuated  by 
inspiration.  But  what  an  epidemic  of  fraud  and  non- 
sense has  the  word  occasioned  in  some  places  during 
recent  years.  The  greatest  and  grandest  landscape- 
paintings  of  all  time  were  and  are,  in  more  or  less  degree, 
impressionist  pictures;  but  how  absurd  to  attach  the 
word  to  things  which  indicate  no  impression  at  all,  or 
because  no  one  can  discern  in  them  anything  natural  or 
understandable !  The  glory  of  a  dissolving  sunset,  for 
instance,  must  always  have  been  an  impressionist  picture, 
for  it  could  not  possibly  have  been  painted  at  the  time, 
so  evanescent  are  the  changing  revelations  of  the  sky;  so, 
you  see,  "impressionism"  in  painting  existed  as  a  factor 
—  an  important  factor  —  in  art  long  before  the  word  be- 
came hackneyed,  and  useful  on  the  lips  of  frauds  to  bam- 
boozle fools. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PICTURES. 

You  ask,  Is  there  a  more  beautiful  spot  anywhere  than 
this?  Let  me  answer  it  by  a  general  statement.  There 
is  beauty  everywhere,  and  it  reveals  itself  always  to  those 
who  look  for  it,  but  only  to  those;  and  it  requires  not  ex- 
tensive travel,  nor  measured  altitudes,  nor  silvery  lakes, 
to  see  and  feel  the  romance,  the  poetry,  or  the  pathos  of 
nature.  Wherever  a  silvery  beech  whispers  its  music  or 
an  oak  casts  its  deep  shadow;  wherever  a  cottage  porch 
is  crowned  with  its  smilax,  or  honeysuckle,  or  a  hedgerow 
is  blushing  with  modest  spring  blossom;  wherever  a 
water-lily  kisses  its  mirror,  or  a  sprig  of  wild  heather  dis- 
plays its  darkening  purple;  wherever  a  corn-field  bends 
low  to  the  reaper,  or  the  matchless  seed-dome  of  the 
dandelion  displays  its  architectural  glory;  wherever  a 
meadow  is  sweetened-  by  the  dewdrops  of  morning,  or  a 
clump  of  still  trees  is  found  hiding  the  shadows  of  sunset, 
—in  them  all  is  the  Spirit  of  Beauty;  and  he  is  the 
happiest  man  who  woos  her  subtle  bewitchment. 

I  have  just  returned  from  a  sketching  tour  in  old  Eng- 
land, and  in  one  of  its  narrow  corners,  where  there  are 
neither  forests  nor  lakes,  nor  mountains,  but  only 
stretches  of  moorland,  and  great  masses  of  gray  granite, 
I  have  seen  visions  of  loveliness  not  surpassed  in  the 
taller  continents  of  the  world.  I  have  seen  sunlight 
weave  cords  of  golden  threads  on  old,  thatched  cottage 
roofs,  and  paint  dreamy  purple  shadows  in  their  eaves. 
I  have  seen  the  August  sunbeams  convert  the  white- 
washed walls  of  a  laborer's  cot  into  a  symphony  of  color, 
and  burnishing  the  blossoms  in  its  humble  garden,  trans- 
form its  poverty  into  the  matchless  thing  called  "  Home, 
sweet  home."  I  have  seen  the  simple  mountain  stream 
from  the  gray  "tors,"  dancing  westward  o'er  its  pebbly 

35 


36  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

bed,  reflect  the  glory  of  an  evening  sky  until  it  seemed  a 
thread  of  liquid  crimson  bespangled  with  countless  beads 
of  fiery  amber  as  the  lights  were  broken  on  its  tiny 
splashes  'gainst  the  rocks.  I  have  seen  a  quiet  veil  of 
cloud  hang  o'er  the  whole  western  sky  at  eventide,  as 
though  to  enforce  the  sublime  assertion,  "It  is  the  glory 
of  God  to  conceal  a  thing,"  and  then  a  little  rift,  no 
larger  than  a  human  hand,  has  opened  and  revealed  a 
fire  more  brilliant  than  the  sapphire, — most  startling  in 
its  effect,  and  making  it  just  possible  to  believe  that 
behind  that  veil  there  was  a  glory  too  superb  for  mortal 
eye.  I  have  seen  silvery  mists  play  hide  and  seek  among 
the  giant  rocks  of  old  Cams  until  with  the  morning's 
resurrection  they  floated  upwards  like  sweet  incense. 
A  thousand  things  about  us  every  day  are  full  of  beauty; 
and  dear  old  England,  with  its  changeful  seasons,  and  its 
humid  atmosphere,  producing  cadences  of  color  in  lichen, 
moss,  and  leafage,  and  weaving  songs  of  suggestive  poetic 
tenderness  in  wood  and  valley,  is,  and  must  ever  be,  the 
home  of  the  poet  and  the  painter — the  birthplace  and  the 
temple  of  landscape-painters. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  most  people  are  alive  to 
scenes  of  natural  beauty  and  phenomena;  but  observa- 
tion disproves  this  theory,  and  demonstrates  the  fact, 
that,  while  multitudes  are  ever  ready  to  enjoy  the 
unavoidable  beauty  of  their  environments,  very  few 
cultivate  the  faculty  for  seeing  the  more  subtle,  and 
therefore  the  more  delightful,  phases  of  beauty  and  en- 
chantment. I  was  much  struck  with  this  fact  the  other 
day.  I  went  to  look  out  upon  the  bay  from  the  heights 
overlooking  the  Presidio.  The  day  was  exceedingly 
glorious,  and  a  stiff  breeze  was  sent  to  help  the  living 
white-sail  yachts  to  enjoy  their  short  regatta. 

About  us,  here  and  there,  were  groups  of  pleasure- 
takers,  like  ourselves,  and  constantly  each  other  over- 
heard remarks  not  uttered  confidentially.  The  breeze 
had  touched  the  water  in  the  narrow  channel  by  the 


PICTURES.  37 

fort,  and,  like  a  pouting  child  at  being  chidden,  it  spent 
its  humorous  anger  on  the  quay,  and,  by  dashing  foam 
against  the  rocks,  looked  quite  white  with  passion.  The 
white- winged  yachts  just  came  so  far  to  see  the  frolic, 
and  then,  as  if  in  laughter  at  the  sight,  turned  sharply 
round  the  flag-ship,  and  shot  before  the  wind  like  snowy 
pigeons,  eager  to  pass  the  winning-post  at  home,  and 
hear  the  loud  hurrah  of  victory.  A  tug  with  belching 
smoke,  enough  to  mark  the  progress  of  a  nation's  fleet, 
took  a  trim  member  of  our  merchantmen  toward  and 
through  the  Golden  Gate.  Before  the  stern  of  the  trim 
craft  was  entirely  hidden,  dark  shadows  lengthened 
across  the  opposite  headlands  and  crept  down  the  sides 
until  they  seemed  to  huddle  together  at  the  edge  of  the 
water,  and  the  water  turned  into  a  semi-green  color  as  if 
with  fright.  Then  up  high  into  the  sky  were  seen  little 
patches  of  color,  like  messengers  hurrying  eastwards,  and 
brighter  they  grew  for  moments,  and  after  them  fol- 
lowed great  arrows  of  delicate  purple,  as  if  in  pursuit  of 
the  flecks  of  transparent  amber.  All  the  while  the  cliffs 
became  darker,  except  on  the  top,  which  sparkled  and 
reddened  like  copper  reflecting  the  sunlight.  The  fort 
looked  black  as  a  demon,  as  the  sky  for  a  moment  was 
flushed  with  deepening  purple;  and  as  the  glory  had 
ended,  I  turned  to  the  eastwards,  where  glowworms  were 
stuck  upon  poles,  and  folly,  and  fashion,  and  greed  were 
huddling  together  for  pleasure  and  gain.  I  could  not 
help  wondering  how  many  there  were  of  this  great  city's 
multitude  who  had  accepted  that  message  of  the  Eternal. 
And  why  had  they  not?  Because — chiefly  because  — 
they  had  never  allowed  their  natures  to  be  touched  by 
the  influence  of  art,  and  had  always  remained  content  to 
see  simply  what  they  could  not  help  seeing;  and  the 
acme  of  their  appreciation  is  well  expressed  in  the  con- 
ventional shriek,  "  O,  lovely ! "  when  God  thrusts  a  vision 
of  palpitating,  throbbing  sky-glory  before  their  eyes. 
I  once  saw  a  picture,  in  oil,  by  one  Lawson,  of  a  fog. 


38  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

Now,  there  are  several  varieties  of  fog.  The  proverbial 
London  November  fog,  made  famous  by  Hood  in  his 
poem;  a  dark-colored  dry  fog,  which  I  'd  warrant  as  a 
kill-or-cure  remedy  for  catarrh;  a  fog  in  which  men  lose 
their  way  in  the  streets  at  mid -day,  and  light  the  gas  in 
their  houses  to  discover  their  victuals  at  table;  the  fog 
one  can  cut  into  slices  with  cheese-knives,  or  as  an 
American  critic  once  said,  "one  can  roll  into  tangible 
lumps,  like  a  snowball."  There  are  fogs  known  in  this 
state  as  sea-fops,  which  are  oftenest  seen  in  the  sections 
boomed  by  estate-men  as  the  frostless  and  fogless  belts. 
Then  there  are  fogs  better  known  as  Scotch  mists,— 
things  mysteriously  wet  without  having  the  appearance 
of  water,  —  and  which  travel  uncommonly  fast  without 
the  assistance  of  wind;  which  seem  to  wet  one  from  the 
inside,  for  one  becomes  conscious  of  being  wet  to  the 
skin  before  the  outer  garments  give  token  of  drenching; 
but  this  fog  is  the  orthodox  fog  of  all  times  and  all 
places,  —  motionless,  clammy,  and  spectral,  —  for  all 
things  seen  in  it  are  shadowy,  silent,  and  shapeless. 
u  Through  it  you  hear  footsteps  of  shadowy,  ghost-like 
walkers,  and  as  they  approach  you,  they  seem  to  be  fog 
just  turning  to  darkening  lumps,  then  disappear  in  the 
mist  like  the  dissolving  view  of  a  lantern." 

This  is  the  fog  which  the  artist  has  placed  in  a  frame, 
and  you  see  neither  canvas  nor  paint,  but  stand  back 
and  peer  into  the  mystery  with  sensations  the  same  as 
you  'd  have  if  you  looked  through  your  dining-room 
window  upon  the  actual  fog-laden  scene.  As  you  look, 
your  growing  perception  discerns  a  slight  motion,  for 
the  painter  had  worked  out  his  study  from  a  window 
overlooking  a  harbor,  and  the  motion  is  that  of  a  break- 
ing wave  'gainst  the  sea-wall,  the  foam  just  brightening 
the  mist,  as  though  a  light  from  a  rift  in  a  cloud  had 
fallen  there;  then,  swaying  on  the  water  with  lappy  and 
clammy  liquidity,  you  make  out  the  shadowy  shape  of  a 
boat,  but  fail  to  discover  whether  its  stem  or  its  stern  is 
against  you,  —  yet  'tis  a  boat,  exactly  as  fog  would  re- 


PICTURES.  39 

veal  it.  A  picture  of  nothing !  yet  full  of  seductive  sug- 
gestiveness  and  of  metaphysical,  misty  obscurity. 

For  a  moment  this  picture  of  fog  may  not  strike  you 
as  possessing  a  poetic  sentiment;  but  may  it  not  be 
compared  with  Byron's  Darkness  f  They  both  rely  on 
the  evocation  of  human  sentiment,  without  visible  or 
tangible  subject,  and  in  this  they  equally  display  the 
essence  of  poetry.  These  two  examples  of  wind  and  fog 
were  selected,  not  because  they  were  the  highest  and  best 
examples  of  poetic  expression,  but  because  they  con- 
tained so  little  to  appeal  for  help  to  the  senses,  and  illus- 
trate most  forcibly  the  faculty  of  the  painter  to  convey 
sentiment  alone. 

While  my  chief  purpose  and  pleasure  is  to  lead  your 
observation  to  the  common  things  in  nature,  and  help 
you  to  see  in  them  the  beauty  of  color  and  form  which 
the  artist  sees,  and  so  incidentally  help  you  to  a  critical 
observation  of  the  artist's  work,  yet  I  would  not  refrain 
from  presenting  to  you  a  picture  which  I  remember  with 
a  vividness  exceptional,  —  a  scene  I  witnessed  in  Puget 
Sound,  on  the  Pacific,  in  the  summer  of  1892,  when, 
among  more  than  a.  hundred  fellow-passengers,  the  fol- 
lowing picture  scarcely  evoked  admiration  from  a  dozen. 
I  sat  on  the  deck  as  the  day  declined,  and  the  sun  played 
some  wonderful  tricks  with  the  clouds  and  the  mists, 
which  were  moving  with  silence  and  fairy-like  witchery 
over  the  waters  and  forests  of  this  lovely  sound.  By  my 
side  was  one  with  a  voice  sweetly  tremulous  with  age 
and  emotion,  and  a  face  full  seventy  years  old,  with 
scarcely  a  wrinkle  upon  it,  beaming  with  the  luster  of 
health  and  the  outshining  of  a  beautiful  soul,  and* 
crowned  with  the  matchless  halo  of  silvery  white  hair. 
We  were  speaking  of  the  mysteries  of  life,  of  the  heart, 
and  of  thought,  and  I  can  but  love  her  for  that  which  she 
said,  making  quite  understandable  things  which  I  had 
many  times  looked  into  with  wonder  and  no  satisfaction. 
Around  us  trembled  the  water  in  countless  ripples  or 
motions,  a  dreamy  liquidity  full  of  prismatic  color. 


40  TALKS    IN    MY    STUDIO. 

Again  and  again  the  sun  would  burst  through  the  great, 
soft,  purple  clouds  which  hung  o'er  the  western  horizon, 
and  the  sea  would  flash  into  lines  of  silver  and  gold  too 
dazzlingly  bright  for  the  eye  to  gaze  upon.  At  length 
the  whole  cloud  was  sundered  by  the  shafts  of  glory  be- 
hind it,  and  dispressed  itself  quickly  in  plumes  and  ban- 
ners of  color,  mostly  purple,  with  fringes  of  burnished 
sapphire.  'Gainst  that  sky  stood  the  tops  of  the  pine 
trees  as  they  grew  upon  the  islands  or  hills  of  the  sound, 
which  stood  like  the  ancestral  hills  of  an  ancient  world, 
whilst  their  feet  were  enshrouded  in  mists  which  were 
semi-transparent,  and  revealed  on  occasions  the  tender 
rose-flush  of  the  opal.  Turning  our  face  to  the  city  was 
to  witness  a  great  transformation,  and  the  soul,  in  a  mo- 
ment, was  hushed  into  somber  and  solemn  reflections, 
for  the  sudden  great  change  from  the  rampant  glory  out 
westward,  to  the  shadows  and  deepening  grays  (although 
purplish)  of  the  city  is  for  the  moment  very  depressing. 
But  look  out  yonder  towards  the  south  or  southeast,  and 
tell  me  what  is  the  vision.  A  mountain,  you  call  it.  It 
bears  no  resemblance  to  earth;  nor  can  it  be  the  "  sky," 
as  men  measure  words  in  earth's  language;  it  must  be  a 
mirage,  or  a  far-away  vision  of  the  palace  of  the  King, 
not  made  with  hands.  Look!  see  how  the  little  cloud, 
kissing  its  top,  is  changed  from  a  cloud  into  an  angel  of 
light,  then  is  lost  in  the  azure  eternal.  Did  snow  ever 
look  so  enchanting?  'T  is  not  white,  such  as  painters 
translate  it,  nor  cold,  such  as  poets  declare  it,  but  a 
great,  soft  cloud  of  rose-colored  incense,  or  a  measureless 
mass  of  sea-foam  churned  from  the  breath  of  the  coral;  a 
mountain  of  dreamland,  woven  by  the  subtle  shuttle  of 
nature  from  dewdrops  and  rain-cloud,  and  tinted  with 
colors  distilled  from  ages  of  rainbows,  —  a  vision  which 
is  only  revealed  on  occasions,  because  it  so  nearly  ap- 
proaches the  glory  which  "  eye  hath  not  seen," — a  thing  so 
ethereal  and  glorious  that  the  language  of  earth  cannot  fix 
it  a  name,  for  some  would  call  it  Tacoma,  while  others, 
with  equal  devotion,  insist  upon  calling  it  Mount  Rainier. 


PART  II 

A  PLAIN  GUIDE  TO  WATER-COLOR  PAINTING 
AND  SKETCHING  FROM  NATURE 


PART  II. 

A  PLAIN  GUIDE  TO  WATER-COLOR  PAINTING 
AND  SKETCHING  FROM  NATURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

A    FEW    GENERAL     REMARKS,    WITH     TABLE    OF    HARMONY    OF 

COLORS. 

IN  landscape-painting,  the  artist  studies  the  reality  of 
the  model  in  each  of  the  elements  that  compose  it ;  but 
he  idealizes  the  real  by  making  it  express  some  sentiment 
of  the  human  soul.  The  proof  that  faithfulness  of  imita- 
tion would  not  alone  suffice  is,  that  if  the  instrument  of 
the  photographer  could  seize  colors  as  it  does  forms,  it 
would  give  us  a  certain  view  of  a  certain  country,  but  it 
would  not  produce  the  work  of  art  which  is  a  landscape- 
painting.  In  order  to  achieve  this,  the  painter,  master  of 
reality,  enlightens  it  with  his  eyes,  transfigures  it  accord- 
ing to  his  heart,  and  makes  it  utter,  so  to  speak,  what  is 
not  in  it,  —  sentiment  and  thought. 

COLORS. 

In  reality,  there  are  only  three  original  or  primary 
colors:  yellow,  red,  and  blue;  and  three  composite  or  binary 
colors:  orange,  green,  and  violet.  White  light  containing 
the  three  primary  colors,  each  of  which  serves  as  the 
"complement"  of  the  two  others,  in  order  to  form  the 
"  equivalent  "  of  white  light.  Each  has  therefore  been 
called  complementary  in  respect  to  the  binary  color 
corresponding  to  it.  Thus,  blue  is  the  complementary  of 
orange,  because  orange  is  composed  of  yellow  and  red,  and 
blue  would  make  white  light.  For  the  same  reason, 
yellow  is  the  complementary  of  violet,  and  red  the  com- 
plementary of  green.  In  return,  each  of  these  mixed 

43 


44  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

colors  is  the  complementary  of  that  primary  color  which 
does  not  enter  into  its  composition.  Therefore,  orange  is 
the  complementary  of  blue. 

A  remarkable  property  of  colors,  which  it  is  very  im- 
portant to  know,  and  which  should  always  be  remembered 
in  using  them  in  furniture  or  dress,  as  well  as  in  painting, 
is  that  which  regulates  the  well-known  law  of  the  u  simul- 
taneous contrast  of  colors."  It  may  be  expressed  thus: 
Complementary  colors  are  mutually  heightened  when  placed 
in  juxtaposition. 

Red,  for  example,  put  by  the  side  of  green,  appears  still 
redder;  orange  deepens  blue;  violet  brightens  yellow,  etc. 

Another  law,  not  less  curious,  is  this,  —  an  especially 
important  one  in  painting, — Every  color  lightly  reflects 
its  complementary  on  the  space  surrounding  itself. 

For  example,  a  red  circle  is  surrounded  with  a  light 
green  aureola;  an  orange  circle  with  a  blue,  etc.  This 
was  observed  by  Veronese  and  Rubens  long  before  the 
science  of  to-day  had  discovered  the  law, — when  they 
carefully  covered  with  a  violet  tint  the  shadows  of  their 
yellows. 

TABLE   OF    HARMONY    OF    COLORS. 

A  Useful  Table  of  Reference  in  Painting  Landscape  and 
Draperies,  and  for  all  Decorative  Purposes. 
Scarlet  with  blue  or  green. 
Gold  or  yellow  with  blue  or  violet. 
Violet  with  light  green  or  yellow. 
Blue  with  yellow  or  red. 
Carmine  with  green  or  orange. 
Brown  with  blue  or  red. 
Neutral  tint  with  red  or  yellow. 
Rose  with  light  blue  or  yellow. 
Orange  with  violet  or  blue. 
Blue-gray  with  buff  or  pink. 
Olive-green  with  red  or  orange. 
Flesh  with  blue  or  dark  green. 
Dark  green  with  crimson  or  orange. 
Light  green  with  rose  or  violet. 


CHAPTER  II. 

AN    EXPLANATION    OF    SOME   TERMS   USED    IN    PAINTING. 

Aerial  Perspective.  —  See  PERSPECTIVE. 

Antique.  —  This  term  is  applied  to  the  paintings  and 
sculptures  which  were  made  at  that  period  when  the  arts 
were  in  their  greatest  perfection  among  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans.  But  it  is  generally  used  for  statues,  basso- 
relievos,  medals,  intaglios,  or  engraved  stones.  It  has 
been  doubted  whether  the  finest  works  of  antiquity  have 
come  down  to  us,  but  the  principal  of  those  which  have 
been  the  guide  of  the  most  distinguished  artists  are  the 
Apollo  Belvedere,  the  Laocobn,  the  Antinoiis,  the  Torso, 
the  Gladiator,  the  Venus  of  Medici,  the  Venus  of  Milo. 
The  Elgin  Marbles  in  the  British  Museum  form  a  treasury 
of  knowledge  of  the  antique  school.  A  profound  study  of 
the  antique  was  the  source  from  which  the  greatest  artists 
of  modern  times,  as  Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael,  drew 
the  perfection  which  has  immortalized  their  names. 

Beauty,  Ideal. — This  term  is  made  use  of  to  express 
that  degree  of  perfection  in  form  which  does  not  actually 
exist  in  nature,  but  only  in  the  creative  fancy  of  the  artist. 
"  It  is  this  intellectual  dignity,"  says  Reynolds,  "  that  en- 
nobles the  painter's  art;  that  lays  a  line  between  him  and 
the  mere  mechanic;  and  produces  those  great  effects  in 
an  instant,  which  eloquence  and  poetry  are  scarcely  able 
to  attain." 

Breadth.  —  This  term,  as  applied  to  a  picture,  denotes 
grandeur  of  expression  or  distribution,  as  opposed  to  con- 
traction and  meanness.  Breadth  is  usually  indicative  of 
a  master,  as  the  want  of  it  almost  always  accompanies 
the  performance  of  an  indifferent  artist.  When  the  lights 

45 


46  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

in  a  picture  are  so  arranged  that  they  seem  to  be  in  masses, 
and  the  darks  are  massed  to  support  them,  so  that  the 
attention  of  the  spectator  is  powerfully  arrested,  we  have 
what  is  called  breadth  of  effect,  or  breadth  of  light  and 
shade.  Breadth  conveys  the  idea  of  greatness.  Correggio 
is  perhaps  the  master  in  whose  works  breadth  appears 
pre-eminently  conspicuous. 

Carnations  are  the  flesh-tints  in  a  picture. 

Cartoon  (from  the  Italian  cartone,  pasteboard).  —  Hence 
the  word  came  to  be  applied  to  the  drawings  or  colored 
designs  on  paper  intended  to  be  transferred  to  the  walls 
in  fresco-painting  or  wrought  in  tapestry. 

Chalky  is  that  cold  or  unpleasant  effect  which  arises 
from  an  injudicious  combination  of  colors  that  do  not 
agree  well  together.  Thus  white  mixed  with  vermilion, 
without  being  tempered  with  the  ochers  or  burnt  sienna, 
will  appear  crude  and  chalky. 

Chiaro-Oscuro  (Italian),  light  and  shade.  This  term 
refers  to  the  general  distribution  of  lights  and  shadows  in 
a  picture,  and  their  just  degradation  as  they  recede  from 
the  focus  of  light.  "It  comprehends,"  says  Professor 
Phillips,  in  his  Lectures,  "not  only  light  and  shade,  with- 
out which  the  form  of  no  objects  can  be  perfectly  repre- 
sented, but  also  all  arrangements  of  light  and  dark  colors 
in  every  degree;  in  short,  in  accordance  with  the  com- 
pound word  composing  its  name,  which  we  have  adopted 
from  the  Italian,  the  light  and  dark  of  a  picture."  Chiaro- 
oscuro  particularly  refers  to  the  great  masses  of  lights  and 
shadows  in  a  painting,  when  the  objects  are  so  disposed 
by  artful  management,  that  their  lights  are  together  on 
one  side  and  their  darks  on  the  other.  The  best  examples 
among  the  Italians  are  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  Cor- 
reggio, Leonardo  da  Vinci,  and  Giorgione;  among  the 


TERMS     USED    IN    PAINTING.  47 

Dutch,  in  those  of  Rembrandt,  Adrian  van  Ostade,  and 
De  Hooghe.  A  composition,  however  perfect  in  other 
respects,  becomes  a  picture  only  by  means  of  the  chiaro- 
oscuro,  which  gives  faithfulness  to  the  representations, 
and  therefore  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  painter; 
at  the  same  tf.me,  it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  branches 
of  the  artist's  study,  because  no  precise  rules  can  be  given 
for  its  execution. 

Colorist  is  a  painter  whose  peculiar  excellence  is  his 
coloring,  but  not  therefore  his  only  excellence.  Titian, 
Veronese,  Rubens,  are  considered  the  best  of  colorists. 

Composition  is  the  arrangement  of  objects  and  the  dis- 
position of  the  parts  so  as  to  form  an  harmonious  union 
of  the  whole;  hence  anything  extraneous  that  disturbs 
the  connection  and  diverts  the  mind  from  the  general 
subject  is  a  vice.  Composition,  which  is  the  principal 
part  of  the  invention  of  a  painter,  is  by  far  the  greatest 
difficulty  he  has  to  encounter.  The  compositions  of 
Raphael  are  said  to  be  grand,  those  of  Veronese  rich, 
those  of  Poussin  classical,  those  of  Teniers  natural. 

Demi- Tints.  —  This  term  implies  the  various  gradations 
of  which  a  color  is  capable. 

Distemper  is  a  preparation  of  colors  without  oil,  only 
mixed  with  size,  white  of  egg,  or  any  such  proper  glu- 
tinous or  unctuous  substance.  All  ancient  paintings  were 
executed  in  this  manner  before  the  year  1460,  when  oil- 
painting  was  first  discovered.  The  Cartoons  of  Raphael 
were  painted  in  distemper. 

Drawings.  —  There  are  several  kinds  of  drawings;  in  a 
general  sense,  the  term  is  applied  to  any  study  or  design 
made  with  black-lead  pencils.  In  the  English  school, 


48  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

frequent  use  is   made  of   the   designation  "water-color 
drawings." 

Dryness  is  a  term  by  which  artists  express  the  common 
defects  of  the  early  painters  in  oil,  who  had  but  little 
knowledge  of  the  flowing  contours  which  so  elegantly 
show  the  delicate  forms  of  the  limbs  and  the  insertion  of 
the  muscles;  the  flesh  in  their  coloring  appearing  hard 
and  stiff,  instead  of  expressing  softness  and  pliancy. 

Effect.  —  By  effect,  in  painting,  is  understood  the  energy 
and  beauty  of  the  optical  results  of  the  combinations, 
accidental,  or  arising  from  calculations  well  understood, 
either  of  the  lines,  of  the  tones,  bright  or  dark,  or,  again, 
of  the  colors  of  the  tints.  But  it  is  especially  to  the 
combinations  of  the  chiaro-oscuro  that  the  effect  owes 
its  energy,  its  suavity,  and  its  charm;  and  what  proves 
it  is  the  appearance  of  engravings  which  offer  color 
without  much  effect;  but  it  is  optically  subordinate  to 
that  which  is  obtained  by  the  bright  and  dark,  semi- 
bright  and  semi-dark  masses,  and  we  thus  distinguish 
the  effect  of  Rubens  and  the  coloring  of  Titian.  The 
pictures  of  Poussin  and  Raphael  have  but  little  effect; 
those  of  Vandyke,  Velasquez,  Gerard,  Reynolds,  and 
Prudhon  have  a  great  deal  of  effect. 

Foreshortening  is  the  art  of  representing  figures  and 
objects  as  they  appear  to  the  eye,  viewed  in  positions 
varying  from  the  perpendicular.  This  art  is  one  of  the 
most  difficult  in  painting,  and  though  absurdly  claimed 
as  a  modern  invention,  was  well  known  to  the  ancients. 
Pliny  speaks  particularly  of  its  having  been  practiced 
by  Parrhasius  and  Pausias,  two  Greek  painters;  besides, 
it  is  impossible  to  execute  any  work  of  excellence  with- 
out its  employment.  In  painting  domes  and  ceilings, 
foreshortening  is  particularly  important.  The  meaning 
of  the  term  is  exemplified  in  the  celebrated  Ascension  by 


TERMS    USED    IN    PAINTING.  49 

Luca  Giordano,  in  which  the  body  of  Christ  is  so  much 
foreshortened  that  the  toes  seem  to  touch  the  knees,  and 
the  knees  the  chin.  (Will  be  known  to  many  readers  by 
engravings.) 

Harmony  is  that  congenial,  accordant,  and  pleasant 
effect  in  a  picture  resulting  from  an  intelligent  distribu- 
tion of  light  and  shade,  a  judicious  arrangement  of 
colors,  and  a  consistency  and  propriety  in  composition. 

Horizontal  Line,  in  perspective,  is  a  line  that  marks 
the  horizon,  or  the  place  of  the  supposed  horizon,  and 
which  is  always  on  a  level  with  the  eye. 

Linear  Perspective.  —  See  PERSPECTIVE. 

Loading  is  a  term  applied  to  laying  colors  in  thick 
masses  on  the  lights,  so  as  to  make  them  project  from 
the  surface,  with  a  view  to  make  them  strongly  illumi- 
nated by  the  light  that  falls  on  the  picture,  and  thus 
mechanically  to  aid  in  producing  roundness  and  relief, 
or  to  give  a  sparkling  effect  to  polished  or  glittering 
objects. 

Local  Colors  are  such  as  faithfully  imitate  those  of  a 
particular  object,  or  such  as  are  natural  and  proper  for 
each  particular  object  in  a  picture.  Color  is  also  dis- 
tinguished by  the  term  "  local,"  because  the  place  it  fills 
requires  that  particular  color,  in  order  to  give  a  greater 
character  of  truth  to  the  several  tints  with  which  it  is 
contrasted. 

Manner  is  that  habit  which  painters  acquire,  not  only 
in  the  management  of  the  pencil,  but  also  in  the  princi- 
pal parts  of  painting,  as  invention,  design,  coloring. 
It  is  by  the  manner  in  painting  that  connoisseurs  decide 
to  what  school  it  belongs,  and  by  what  particular  master 


50  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

of  that  school  it  was  executed.  Some  masters  have  had 
a  variety  in  their  manners  at  different  periods  of  life; 
others  have  so  constantly  adhered  to  one  only,  that  those 
who  have  seen  even  a  few  of  their  pictures  will  immedi- 
ately know  and  judge  of  them  without  the  risk  of  mis- 
take. The  variety  observable  among  artists  arises  from 
the  manners  of  the  different  schools  in  which  they  have 
received  their  instruction,  or  of  the  artists  under  whom 
they  have  studied;  for  young  painters,  feeling  a  parti- 
ality for  those  masters  they  have  imitated,  prefer  what 
they  have  long  accustomed  themselves  to  admire.  Yet 
there  are  instances,  among  the  great  artists,  of  painters 
who  have  divested  themselves  of  that  early  partiality  so 
effectually  as  to  fix  on  a  manner  far  better  adapted  to 
their  particular  genius,  and  by  this  means  have  arrived 
at  a  greater  excellence.  Thus  Raphael  proceeded,  and 
acquired  a  much  more  elevated  manner,  after  he  had 
quitted  the  school  of  Perugino  and  seen  the  works  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci. 

Mannerism  is  an  affected  style,  contracted  by  an  imita- 
tion of  the  peculiarities  of  some  particular  master,  instead 
of  a  general  contemplation  of  nature. 

Perspective.  —  The  art  of  representing  the  appearance 
of  objects  as  seen  from  a  certain  point  of  view.  It  is 
divided  into  geometrical  or  linear  perspective  and .  the 
perspective  of  color  or  aerial  perspective.  Both  are 
subjected  to  perfectly  scientific  rules,  and  without  the 
observance  of  those  rules  no  picture  can  have  truth  or 
life.  Linear  perspective  describes  or  represents  the  posi- 
tion, form,  and  magnitude  of  objects,  and  their  diminu- 
tion in  proportion  to  their  distance  from  the  eye.  Aerial 
perspective  is  the  degradation  of  the  tones  of  colors, 
which  throws  off  the  distances  of  grounds  and  objects, 
and  which  judicious  artists  practice  by  diffusing  a  kind 
of  thin  vapor  over  them,  that  deceives  the  eye  agree- 


TERMS    USED    IN    PAINTING.  51 

ably.  It  shows  the  diminution  of  the  colors  of  objects 
in  proportion  as  they  recede  from  the  eye  by  the  inter- 
position of  the  atmosphere  between  the  eye  and  the 
objects.  The  proportion  of  this  degradation  is  regulated 
by  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere.  Hence  in  a  fog  it 
will  be  greater  at  the  distance  of  a  few  feet,  than  in  a 
clear  sky  at  as  many  miles.  Distant  objects  in  a  clear 
southern  air  appear  to  an  eye  accustomed  to  a  thick 
northern  atmosphere  much  nearer  than  they  really  are. 
Thus  as  the  air  changes,  the  aerial  perspective  must 
change.  Morning,  noon,  evening,  moonshine,  winter, 
summer,  the  sea,  etc.,  all  have  their  different  aerial 
perspective.  In  aerial  perspective,  the  weakening  of  the 
tints  corresponds  to  the  foreshortening  of  the  receding 
lines  in  linear  perspective.  In  the  illuminated  parts  of 
objects,  the  tints  are  represented  more  broken  and  fluc- 
tuating, and  the  shaded  parts  are  often  aided  by  reflec- 
tion. By  aerial  perspective,  two  results  are  obtained : 

1.  Each  object  in  a  picture  receives  that  degree  of  color 
and  light  which   belongs  to  its  distance  from  the  eye; 

2.  The  various  local  tones  are  made  to  unite  in  one  chief 
tone,  which  last  is  nothing  else  than  the  common  color  of 
the  atmosphere  and  the  light  which  penetrates  it.     The 
charm  and  harmony  of  a  picture,  particularly  of  a  land- 
scape,  depend   greatly  on  a  proper   application  of   the 
laws  of  perspective. 

Reflected  Lights  are  the  borrowed  lights,  or  lights 
coming  from  one  object  to  another;  and  those  reflected 
lights  always  partake  of  the  tint  of  the  object  from  which 
the  light  is  reflected.  Not  only  the  atmosphere,  but 
every  object  in  nature,  reflects  light. 

Stitt  Life. — The  representations  of  inanimate  objects, 
as  dead  game,  vegetables,  fruits,  and  flowers,  musical 
and  sporting  instruments,  weapons,  tankards,  glasses, 
etc.,  or  of  fishes  and  domestic  animals  of  every  descrip- 


52  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

tion,   when    forming    compositions    by  themselves,  are 
called  still  life. 

Style.  —  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  says  that  "in  painting, 
style  is  the  same  as  in  writing;  a  power  over  materials, 
whether  words  or  colors,  by  which  conceptions  or  senti- 
ments are  conveyed."  Styles  vary  in  painting  as  in 
writing:  some  are  grand,  others  plain;  some  florid,  and 
others  simple.  The  word  very  often  signifies  only  the 
manner  peculiar  to  a  school  or  master,  in  design,  com- 
position, coloring,  expression,  and  execution. 

Tone  is  the  harmony  of  coloring  in  a  painting,  or  the 
happy  effect  produced  by  the  proper  degradation  of  light 
and  shade,  so  as  to  cause  all  harshness  and  crudeness  to 
disappear. 

Values.  —  Value,  in  a  picture,  is  usually  defined  as  the 
quantity  of  light  or  dark  in  a  color  or  tone.  It  is  the 
difference  of  pitch  between  one  color  or  tone  and  an- 
other color  or  tone,  whether  the  colors  are  different,  as 
orange  and  yellow,  or  the  same,  as  green  and  green. 
White  light  is  the  standard  of  values,  and  all  colors  in- 
crease in  value  as  they  approach  this  standard.  Two 
objects  of  the  same  color,  as  rocks  covered  with  snow, 
one  three  feet  from  the  eye  and  the  other  thirty,  will 
differ  in  degree  or  intensity  of  whiteness.  The  inter- 
vening atmosphere  is  the  cause,  but  the  difference  is 
called  difference  in  values. 


CHAPTER  III. 

LIST     OF     MATERIALS,      WITH     USES     OF      THE      COLORS      DE- 
SCRIBED. 

WHERE  expense  is  a  matter  of  little  or  no  moment  to 
the  student,  it  will  be  best  to  secure  the  materials  of  the 
best  old-established  makers,  such  as  Windsor  &  Newton 
or  George  Rowney  &  Sons,  but  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  the  beginner  should  adopt  the  most  expensive  out- 
fit, for  the  author  has  tested  several  of  the  less  expensive 
colors  issued  by  the  leading  artists'  color-men  of 
America,  and  while  some  are  certainly  to  be  avoided, 
the  use  of  which  would  render  it  impossible  for  the  most 
painstaking  student  to  produce  satisfactory  results,  there 
are  others  which  may  quite  safely  be  adopted  as  possess- 
ing most  of  the  excellent  qualities  of  the  highest-priced 
European  pigments.  One  of  the  most  satisfactory  boxes 
of  colors,  among  such  preparations,  is  called  the  No.  0, 
and  is,  I  believe,  imported  from  Paris.  It  contains 
eighteen  moist  colors  and  three  brushes,  and  is  sold  for 
""$1.25.  The  colors  are  pure  in  tone  and  well  ground,  and 
~1  have  no  reason  to  doubt  their  ordinary  permanency, 
but  the  Chinese  white  which  it  contains  had  better  be 
replaced  by  a  bottle  of  superior  make. 

Moist  colors  in  half-pans  are  the  best  adapted  for  all 
ordinary  work,  and  the  student  who  overcomes  the 
temptation  to  possess  a  large  number  of  colors  in  the 
belief  that  he  thereby  is  able  to  easily  produce  any  re- 
quired result,  but  who  resolutely  confines  himself  to  a 
limited  number, — say,  at  most,  twenty,  —  will  make  the 
best  and  quickest  progress;  for  he  will  be  constantly 
proving  the  capacity  and  power  of  the  colors  in  their 
numerous  combinations.  While  I  approve  of  the  selec- 
tion of  colors  in  the  box  referred  to,  I  think  it  advisable 
to  recommend  the  addition  to  it  of  the  following:  brown  - 

53 


54  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

pink,  orange-vermilion,  and  cadmium  yellow.  With  this 
outfit  you  will  possess  a  wizard's  wand,  to  beckon  into 
into  being  "  things  of  beauty,"  joys  forever. 

The  colors  marked  thus  *  in  the  following  list  may  be 
omitted. 

Yellow Ocher.  —  For  sunny  clouds,  in  thin  washes  mixed 
with  vermilion,  scarlet  or  crimson  lake;  for  roads, 
mixed  with  light  red  or  madder  brown;  for  distant 
greens,  mixed  with  blues  and  browns,  thin;  very  useful 
to  express  extensive  flat  middle  distance. 

Raw  Sienna.  —  Very  valuable  to  express  rich,  sunny 
and  autumnal  tones,  mixed  with  the  blues  and  browns; 
as  a  glaze  (thin)  over  sunny  green  foliage  is  very  effective. 

Gamboge  is  gummy  in  substance,  and  must,  therefore, 
not  be  used  too  thick;  produces  a  juicy  green  when 
mixed  with  Antwerp  blue;  alone,  or  only  tinged  with 
orange-vermilion,  it  is  fine  for  the  high  lights  in  grasses 
and  near  foliage. 

Cadmium. — An  intense  yellow;  mostly  useful  in  sun- 
set effects,  but  will  mix  with  Antwerp  blue  or  indigo  for 
very  bright  greens. 

Italian  Pink.*  —  Mixed  with  indigo  or  Antwerp  blue 
for  rich  grass-greens;  alone,  in  medium  wash,  it  makes  a 
sunny  effect  upon  near  foliage  and  grasses;  with  a  little 
Vandyke  brown  it  makes  a  charming  transparent  shadow 
wash  for  middle  distances;  never  use  it  thickly,  but  it 
may  be  strengthened  sometimes  by  repeating  the  wash. 

Brown  Pink.  —  With  Antwerp  blue  or  indigo  it  makes 
a  series  of  rich  greens  for  herbage  and  foliage;  with  gam- 
boge in  light  washes  will  produce  very  pretty  sunny 
effects  on  sappy  grasses  and  in  the  half-lights  of  all  rich 


LIST    OF    MATERIALS,    WITH    USES.  55 

brown  foliage.  It  will  be  found  a  useful  color  in  represent- 
ing extensive  middle  distances  and  foothills  at  the  time 
when  the  grasses  are  changing  into  brown  in  early  sum 
mer;  and  used  carefully,  nothing  will  exceed  its  beauty 
and  truthfulness  in  depicting  the  brown  shadows  in  pools 
and  running  brooks  where  rich  brown  soil  prevails. 

Naples  Yellow*  is  opaque;  hence  must  never  be  used  in 
composing  foreground  greens;  it  is  very  effective  in  giving 
the  pale  yellow  light  in  morning  skies,  and  with  a  little 
vermilion  added  it  represents  the  soft  light  lines  of  cloud 
frequently  seen  in  an  otherwise  blue  sky. 


s 


Indian  Red.  —  A  useful  dull  red,  valuable  for  composing 
purplish  grays  by  mixture  with  French  blue  or  cobalt. 
Care  must  be  observed  in  its  use,  as  it  is  with  difficulty 
removed  from  the  paper  when  once  dry. 

Light  Red. — One  of  the  most  useful  colors;  mixed  with 
blues,  almost  every  kind  of  gray  can  be  made;  with  Van- 
dyke brown,  rich,  old,  broken  "adobe"  and  earth  banks 
can  be  represented. 

Orange-Vermilion.  —  Much  more  useful  than  the  ordi- 
nary vermilion;  an  expensive  color  to  grind,  therefore  care 
should  be  exercised  in  selection;  when  a  landscape  is 
intended  to  be  very  bright  and  sunny,  or  a  sunset,  the 
preliminary  wash  over  the  entire  paper,  as  recommended 
in  Chapter  IV,  may  be  made  of  this,  instead  of  the  mix- 
ture there  recommended;  in  very  thin  washes  it  is  useful 
for  whitewashed  houses  or  barns  on  the  sunlit  sides,  par- 
ticularly when  the  sun  is  low  down  in  the  afternoon  (the 
sides  in  shadow  then  to  be  in  neutral  purple,  composed 
of  blue,  red,  and  ivory-black,  or  sepia). 

Carmine  gives  very  truthfully  the  delightful  sunset 
reflections  upon  the  snow-clad  Sierras,  seen  at  their  best 


56  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

during  the  rainy  season;  makes  delicious  shadow  com- 
binations with  French  blue,  Antwerp  or  indigo;  useful  in 
brilliant  touches  of  drapery,  and  just  tingeing  a  weak 
wash  of  emerald-green  will  give  a  very  beautiful  passage 
of  distant,  sunny,  rolling  meadows.  This  should  be  done 
by  applying  it  in  very  delicate  tint  over  the  green  when 
dry,  called  a  "glaze." 

Crimson  Lake.  —  Heavier  than  the  above;  more  useful 
in  mixing  with  French  blue  or  indigo  for  very  dark  mark- 
ings, but,  on  the  whole,  should  not  be  preferred  to  carmine. 

Alizarin  Crimson.  —  Somewhat  preferable  to  crimson 
lake. 

Rose- Madder.*  —  A  beautiful  tender  color,  useful  in 
forming  warm  shadow  clouds  and  grays  with  the  various 
blues  and  black. 

Burnt  Sienna.  —  Invaluable.  Mixed  with  Antwerp  blue 
it  makes  a  warm  sunny  green;  with  indigo,  a  deep,  rich- 
toned,  shadow  green;  if  a  picture  nearing  completion  is 
found  to  have  a  too  green  or  crude  appearance,  a  thin 
wash  of  burnt  sienna  over  the  parts  in  light  will  very 
materially  help  it;  with  madder  brown,  every  variety  of 
red  cow  .can  be  painted;  of  constant  use,  also,  in  roads, 
brick,  tiles,  and  interwoven  with  Vandyke  brown  it  breaks 
up  large  surfaces  of  green  herbage  so  as  to  give  the  appear- 
ance of  grasses  and  multiplicity  of  weeds,  etc.;  in  very 
thin  wash  it  gives  the  smooth  bark  of  the  eucalyptus  in 
sunlight,  and  with  a  little  carmine  it  gives  the  berry  of 
the  pepper  tree;  mixed  with  a  little  madder  brown,  it 
makes  a  good  color  for  the  side  of  the  orange  in  shade, 
while  the  lightest  part  is  of  orange-vermilion. 

'(Real  Ultramarine. — The  most  perfect  blue,  but  washes 
badly,  and  is  therefore  not  the  best  for  beginners.  It  is, 


LIST    OF    MATERIALS,    WITH    USES.  57 

moreover,  very  expensive,  and  on  this  account  alone  is 
not  often  to  be  found  in  ordinary  palettes.  The  French 
blue  and  cobalt  are  very  satisfactory  substitutes. 

Cobalt  Blue.  —  One  of  the  indispensable  colors  in  the 
water-color  box;  it  is  semi-opaque,  and  therefore  should 
not  be  used  heavily  in  composing  foreground  greens,  but 
in  skies  and  distances,  in  composing  grays  with  any  of 
the  reds,  and  purples  with  any  of  the  lakes,  and  neutral 
grays  with  sepia  for  rocks,  stems  of  trees,  and  other  broken 
foreground  items,  it  is  most  valuable.  In  combination 
with  gamboge,  it  makes  very  brilliant  greens. 

Antwerp  Blue. — In  addition  to  its  usefulness  in  the 
creation  of  greens,  by  admixture  with  the  yellows,  and  a 
beautiful  transparent  green  by  mixture  with  Vandyke 
brown,  it  makes  a  series  of  valuable  grays  for  rocks  and 
cliffs,  when  mixed  with  madder  brown,  or  Indian  red,  or 
light  red.  It  is  not  supposed  to  be  very  permanent, 
hence  is  not  used  so  freely  as  French  blue  or  indigo. 

Prussian  Blue. — Is  stronger  than  Antwerp  blue.  Must 
be  used  with  caution,  because  of  its  strength. 

French  Blue  is  much  used  because  of  its  transparent 
quality  and  moderate  tone.  It  makes  good  shadow  tints 
for  clouds  in  combination  with  madder  brown,  Indian  red, 
light  red,  or  ivory-black,  and  a  range  of  useful  shadow 
tints,  with  crimson  lake  and  ivory-black,  or  with  sepia 
and  carmine;  it  is  serviceable  at  times  to  strengthen  the 
blue  in  skies.  This  is  often  called  French  ultramarine. 

Indigo. — In  mixing  indigo  it  must  be  used  sparingly, 
because  of  its  tendency  to  blackness.  It  is  an  intensely 
cold  color,  hence  is  applicable  to  making  sea  washes  and 
running  water;  mixtures  of  indigo  (very  light)  with  light 
red,  orange- vermilion,  or  madder  brown  make  a  series  of 


58  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

cool  grays  for  objects  in  distances;  with  crimson  lake  or 
carmine  in  thin  washes  it  makes  good  purplish  shadows 
for  middle-distance  objects. 

Madder  Brown  has  a  tendency  to  redness;  makes  a  good 
wash  for  near  rock-masses  on  which  the  sun  falls;  for  this 
purpose  a  very  small  portion  of  French  or  cobalt  blue 
should  be  added,  when  the  wash  is  dry;  put  in  the  forms 
that  are  in  half-light  with  same  mixture  slightly  strength- 
ened, then,  when  again  dry,  the  darkest  touches  with 
additional  strength  of  same  color.  Madder  brown  is  also 
useful  for  putting  in  the  dark,  rich  touches  among  bram- 
bles and  herbage,  for  markings  in  roads  and  ruts,  and  for 
making  slender  tree  branches,  where  they  possess  any 
color. 

Vandyke  Brown.  —  Perhaps  the  most  useful  brown;  with 
gamboge  it  makes  a  pretty  color  for  tree-masses;  with  the 
blues  it  makes  very  quiet  greens  for  low-toned  pictures; 
it  is  much  used  as  a  glaze  over  greens,  to  subdue  them; 
for  masses  of  brown,  which  frequently  exist  in  middle 
distances,  it  is  unequaled;  it  should  be  used  in  thin 
washes  generally,  and  repeated  when  necessary,  instead 
of  laying  it  with  full  strength  in  one  wash. 

Sepia  is  colder  than  Vandyke  brown;  makes  splendid 
cool  grays,  mixed  with  cobalt  for  distances,  and  is  useful 
in  roads,  banks  of  earth,  tree  stems,  etc. 

Ivory-Blaek  is  serviceable  in  reducing  the  brilliancy  of 
some  intense  colors  where  it  is  necessary  to  make  very 
dark  masses  or  markings;  with  the  reds  it  makes  a  series 
of  grays,  useful  in  some  winter  skies  or  masses  of  distant 
rocks  or  cliffs,  and  mixed  with  cobalt  or  French  blue  it 
makes  a  colder  tint  for  similar  purposes.  It  must  be  used 
sparingly. 


LIST    OF    MATERIALS,    WITH    USES.  59 

Emerald- Green.  —  For  bits  of  brilliant  drapery,  such  as 
a  woman's  shawl  or  a  rug,  when  it  is  necessary  to  intro- 
duce it;  for  that  indescribable  tint  in  deep-sea  water, under 
certain  aspects,  and  for  such  exceptional  passages  of  color 
as  I  have  indicated  under  "Carmine."  If  kept  moist,  a 
half-pan  will  last  for  years  in  ordinary  practice. 

Purple  Madder.*  —  Useful  in  sunset  effects  chiefly;  a 
very  beautiful  color,  but,  like  all  the  madders,  is  not 
permanent. 

Chinese  WJiite. — This  is  best  kept  in  tube,  and  it  is 
advisable  to  use  only  the  best  make,  as  there  are  many 
sold  which  do  not  dry  perfectly  white,  and  some  which  do 
not  dry  thoroughly  at  all;  it  should  never  be  used  where 
it  can  possibly  be  avoided,  nevertheless  there  are  occasions 
when  its  use  is  inevitable,  and  effects  which  cannot  be 
represented  truthfully  without  it,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  morning  effect  treated  of  in  Chapter  IV.  The  student 
will  discover  in  time  that  it  must  be  used  occasionally  to 
assist  in  the  production  of  floating  mists  and  the  dreamy, 
hazy  mysteries  of  distant  hills  and  valleys.  It  would  be 
too  bewildering  to  the  beginner  to  attempt  a  description 
of  its  use  to  produce  the  most  subtle  effects  in  landscape; 
as  we  have  said,  it  is  a  pigment,  the  use  of  which,  to  an 
appreciable  extent,  it  is  a  virtue  to  ignore  rather  than  to 
encourage.  It  is  useful,  however,  to  lay  on  small  high 
lights  which  cannot  be  judicially  either  "left  out"  or 
"taken  out"  (see  Chapter  V),  and  for  putting  in  figures 
or  cattle  under  same  conditions. 

Now,  the  beginner  will  not  act  wisely  if  he  encumbers 
himself  with  more  than  the  colors  enumerated  above. 
The  writer  has  found  in  a  life's  experience  that  every  re- 
quirement of  the  art  can  be  met  by  this  combination. 

The  colors  should  be  arranged  in  his  box  in  the  fol- 
lowing order,  so  that,  as  he  holds  it  in  his  left,  the 


60  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

yellows  should  be  nearest  his  right  hand,  the  reds  next, 
the  blues  next,  and  such  colors  as  Vandyke  brown, 
ivory-black,  green,  sepia,  and  Chinese  white  last;  by 
ever  keeping  them  in  this  order  he  will  soon  acquire  a 
rapid  facility  of  fixing  his  brush  upon  the  color  he 
desires,  without  having  to  refer  to  their  position  and 
names  on  a  chart,  which  it  is  advisable  he  should  make 
as  soon  as  he  has  placed  them,  for  use  will  soon  make 
their  surfaces  look  very  much  alike. 

PAPER. 

Always  use  Whatman's  "  Extra  Stout  Not,"  which 
means  that  the  surface  is  not  hot-pressed.  This  is  better 
in  many  particulars  than  a  smoother  surface.  Most 
artists'  color-men  keep  this  paper  in  what  are  known 
as  "  sketch- blocks,"  containing  many  sheets  of  paper 
fastened  securely  at  their  edges  on  a  thick  cardboard, 
and  when  a  drawing  is  finished  it  is  easily  removed  by 
passing  a  knife  around  the  edges,  when  the  block  presents 
a  fresh  sheet  again  ready  for  another  picture  without 
trouble  of  mounting.  This,  of  course,  has  its  advantage 
in  saving  of  time  and  labor,  but  this  is  more  than 
compensated  for  in  the  case  of  working  and  the  more 
satisfactory  flow  of  the  washes  upon  the  paper,  if  the 
student  will  adopt  the  following  method :  Obtain  a 
drawing-board,  perfectly  square  (say  15  x  10  inches); 
have  your  paper  large  enough  to  fold  over  the  back  of 
the  board  one  inch  all  round;  damp  the  paper  on  both 
sides  with  a  very  soft  sponge  (applying  the  water  by 
taps,  not  by  rubbing);  allow  it  to  become  nearly  dry, 
but  take  care  that  it  is  not  quite  dry;  then  place  the 
board  upon  it,  cut  the  corners  so  that  the  end  shall 
overlap  the  sides  when  they  are  pasted  over  on  the  back 
without  forming  a  crease  at  the  corner;  this  is  done,  of 
course,  by  cutting  out  a  right  angle;  then  paste  the 
edges  firmly  on  back  of  board,  and  place  the  board  with 
pasted  edges  downward  on  a  flat  surface  to  dry.  If  this 


LIST    OF    MATERIALS,    WITH    USES.  61 

is  properly  done,  the  paper,  when  dry,  will  present  a  flat 
dead  surface,  and  will  not  pucker  during  the  progress  of 
the  drawing,  which  occurs,  more  or  less,  with  the  blocks. 
Paper  has  a  finished  and  an  unfinished  side,  the 
finished  side  (on  which,  of  course,  the  picture  is  painted) 
may  be  ascertained  by  holding  the  sheet  between  the  eye 
and  the  light,  and  when  the  name  "Whatman,"  in  water- 
mark, reads  rightly  from  left  to  right,  then  the  finished 
side  is  near  the  eye,  and  it  may  be  indicated  by  placing 
a  mark  in  the  corners  of  the  paper,  which  can  then  be 
cut  into  required  sizes  without  losing  sight  of  the  right 
side. 

BRUSHES. 

It  is  indispensable  to  have  a  good  water  or  sky  brush, 
and  although,  of  course,  a  sable  would  always  be  pre- 
ferred, yet  the  <k Siberian  hair"  is  a  really  good  brush, 
and  is  only  one  third  the  cost  of  sable.  It  should  be  at 
least  half  an  inch  wide  at  the  ferrule,  and  flat,  with  full 
hairs. 

The  other  brushes  should  be  of  three  sizes, — one  for 
very  fine  touches,  the  next  for  general  work,  and  the 
third  for  large  washes,  the  largest  of  the  three  being  less 
than  the  thickness  of  a  small  cedar  pencil.  They  are 
known  in  the  best  makers'  lists  as  Nos.  2,  4,  and  6,  in 
round  albata  ferrules.  An  easel,  a  small  fine  sponge,  and 
some  thick  blotting-paper  will  complete  the  outfit  for 
studio-work. 

For  outdoor  sketching  the  following  items  will  add 
much  to  the  convenience  and  enjoyment  of  the  work: 
sketching-stool,  light  sketching-easel,  umbrella  with  joint 
and  spike  to  drive  into  the  ground,  water-bottle,  and 
small  cups  or  dippers. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

ON   MIXING    COLORS,    WITH  A  LIST    OF   USEFUL   COMBINATIONS. 

ALWAYS  have  regard  to  the  extent  or  quantity  of  the 
wash  required,  then  place  in  your  palette  the  necessary 
quantity  of  water,  to  which  you  will  add  the  color  or 
colors  until  the  requisite  degree  of  strength  is  obtained; 
by  this  means  uniformity  of  tone  is  secured;  and  here 
must  be  reiterated  the  instruction  to  be  careful  in  seeing 
that  all  the  color  is  discharged  from  the  brush,  or  the 
result  will  be  blotches  as  the  brush  is  applied  to  the 
paper.  In  mixing  color  for  dark,  small  markings,  do 
not  use  much  water,  but  use  the  brush  saturated  only  at 
its  point;  by  this  means  the  color  can  be  applied  strong 
and  crisp,  which  is  essential  in  the  foreground  detail.  In 
taking  the  color  from  the  pans,  see  that  your  brush  is 
moist  only,  not  full  of  water,  for  if  it  is,  you  will  waste 
much  of  your  pigments,  and  your  box  will  too  speedily 
require  replenishing.  When  two  tints  have  to  be  blended, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  use  two  brushes, — indeed,  it  will 
be  found  advantageous  to  use  the  same  brush;  having 
both  tints  ready  prepared,  dip  the  brush  into  the  second 
tint  and  apply  it  to  the  lower  edge  of  the  first  wash; 
the  point  of  unison  will  be  less  perceptible  than  if  two 
brushes  are  used.  When  Chinese  white  is  used  with 
any  tint,  it  is  best  to  rub  the  white  into  the  tint  with  the 
finger-point,  for  if  the  brush  is  used  for  this  purpose,  it 
will  nearly  always  be  found  that  particles  of  the  white 
remain  uncharged  with  the  tint,  and  although  their 
measurement  is  infinitesimal,  yet  the  result  of  the  wash 
will  be  "  chalky." 

Such  small  matters  of  detail  as  this,  and  many  others 
contained  in  this  little  guide,  may  be  considered  for  the 
moment  as  trifling  and  unimportant,  but  the  student 
will  soon  find  that  they  contribute  very  materially  to  his 

62 


MIXING    COLORS  —  COMBINATIONS. 


63 


progress  in  practice  and  add  many  charms  to  pictorial 
effect. 

SOME    COLOR   COMBINATIONS    FOR   SKIES. 

Clear  blue  sky.  Ultramarine,  cobalt,  or  cobalt   and 

very  little  rose-madder. 

Light  clouds.  Orange   vermilion,  or  light  red  and 

yellow  ocher,  or  Naples  yellow  tinged 
with  rose-madder  or  vermilion. 

Shaded  clouds  Yellow  ocher  and  madder  brown,  or 

(warm).  Naples   yellow  and  madder  brown,  or 

ivory-black  and  light  red,  or  light  red 
and  cobalt. 

Cold  clouds.  Indigo  and  light  red,  or  ivory-black 

and  indigo,  or  Payne's  gray  and  light 
red;  or  indigo,  French  blue,  and  ver- 
milion. 

Purple  clouds  Crimson     lake    and     French    blue, 

(at  sunset).  crimson  lake  and  cobalt,  carmine  and 
French  blue,  carmine  and  indigo,  or 
purple  madder. 

Crimson  clouds  Crimson  lake,  or  crimson  lake  and 

(sunset).  carmine,  or  light  red  and  rose-madder. 

Brilliant  yellow          Cadmium   yellow,  or  cadmium  and 
of  sunset.  gamboge. 

Subdued  yellow          Yellow  ocher  and  Indian  red,  or  a 
of  sunset.  little  rose-madder. 

COMBINATIONS    FOR   SEA. 

Distant  sea.  Indigo,  or   French  blue,  or  French 

blue  and  ivory-black,  and  for  the  deep 


64  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

purplish  blue  frequently  seen  below 
the  horizon  or  under  dark  clouds,  use 
indigo  and  crimson  lake. 

Stormy  sea.  Raw  sienna  and  ivory-black,  burnt 

sienna  and  indigo,  or  burnt  sienna  and 
Antwerp  blue,  or  cobalt  blue  and  Van- 
dyke brown,  or  raw  sienna  and  Van- 
dyke brown. 

Sea-greens.  Cobalt  and  gamboge,  Prussian  blue 

and  gamboge,  cadmium  yellow  and  Ant- 
werp blue,  cadmium  yellow  and  French 
blue. 

Emerald-green  (this  is  rarely  used 
alone,  but  for  the  beautiful  green,  full  of 
light,  sometimes  seen  in  deep  rock- 
pools,  a  thin  wash  of  this  over  gamboge 
and  cobalt  is  admirable),  raw  sienna 
and  indigo.  For  those  parts  of  the 
waves  catching  most  light,  use  raw 
sienna,  or  raw  sienna  and  Vandyke 
brown,  or  Roman  ocher. 

« 

Deep  shadows  in  Burnt  sienna  and  cobalt,  or  burnt 
waves  possess-  sienna  and  indigo,  or  indigo  and  touch 
ing  color.  of  crimson  lake. 


ROCKS. 

Rocks  of  gray.  Payne's  gray  (very  light)  or  ivory- 

black  and  light  red,  or  ivory-black  and 
vermilion,  or  ivory-black  and  madder 
brown,  or  cobalt  and  light  red,  or  indigo 
and  light  red,  or  Vandyke  brown  and 
French  blue,  or  indigo  and  madder 


MIXING    COLORS  —  COMBINATIO 


brown,  or  indigo  and  rose-madder  and  a 
little  yellow  ocher,  or  orange-vermilion 
and  ivory-black,  or  orange-vermilion 
and  blue. 

Rocks  having  Burnt  sienna,  or  burnt  sienna   and 

color.  ivory -black,    or    burnt     sienna     and 

Payne's  gray,  or  madder  brown,  or 
madder  brown  and  sepia  (a  beautiful 
color),  or  madder  brown  and  raw 
sienna,  or  Payne's  gray  and  vermilion. 


Mountains 

(remote). 


Mountains 

(nearer). 


Patches  of  herb- 
age on  moun- 
tains in-  dis- 
tance. 


Cobalt,  with  slight  addition  of  yellow 
ocher  and  rose-madder;  cobalt,  indigo, 
and  rose-madder;  or  cobalt  and  Payne's 
gray  and  a  little  rose-madder.  If  very 
cold,  Payne's  gray  and  cobalt,  or 
Payne's  gray  and  indigo. 

First  wash  over  with  yellow  ocher 
and  light  red,  or  yellow  ocher  and  brown 
madder;  or  if  very  sunny,  use  yellow 
ocher  and  rose-madder,  or  light  red 
alone.  Put  in  the  shadows  with  French 
blue  and  madder  brown,  or  cobalt  and 
madder  brown;  or  madder  brown, 
Payne's  gray,  and  cobalt;  or  cobalt, 
sepia,  and  madder  brown;  or  indigo  and 
purple  madder;  or  cobalt,  ivory-black, 
and  purple  madder. 

Yellow  ocher,  Antwerp  blue,  and  a 
little  rose-madder;  or  yellow  ocher  and 
a  little  cobalt;  or  yellow  ocher,  indigo, 
and  a  little  light  red;  or  yellow  ocher, 
Vandyke  brown,  and  a  little  cobalt;  or 
raw  sienna  and  cobalt,  with  a  little 


66 


A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 


rose-madder.  The  above  may  be  glazed 
afterwards  with  light  washes  of  either 
of  the  following:  gamboge,  Italian  pink, 
raw  sienna,  or  burnt  sienna. 

FOREGROUND,    HERBAGE,    ETC. 

Grass-greens.  Antwerp  blue  and  Indian  yellow,  or 

Prussian  blue  and  Indian  yellow,  or 
gamboge  and  blue. 

Broken  greens.  Burnt   sienna,   Indian   yellow,   and 

Antwerp  blue;  or  raw  sienna,  lake,  and 
Prussian  blue;  or  gamboge,  sepia,  and 
indigo;  or  brown  pink  and  Antwerp 
blue;  or  brown  pink  and  indigo;  or 
brown  pink  alone. 

Warm  tones  in          Burnt  sienna,  or  raw  sienna,  or  In- 
sun.  dian  yellow  and  madder  brown,  or  Ital- 

ian pink,  or  gamboge  and  rose-madder, 
or  Indian  yellow  and  a  little  lake. 

Glossy  leaves  in        Cobalt  and  Indian  yellow,  gamboge 
high  light.  and  cobalt,   Prussian   blue   and   rose- 

madder,  or  indigo  and  rose-madder,  or 
cobalt  and  Naples  yellow,  or  indigo. 

Dead  stems  and        Madder  brown,  or  madder  brown  and 
Leaves.  burnt  sienna,  or  burnt  sienna  and  Van- 

dyke brown,  or  Vandyke  brown  and 
crimson  lake,  or  burnt  sienna  alone. 

FOR    CATTLE   AND    OTHER    ANIMALS. 

If  dark  brown.  Vandyke  brown;  or  Vandyke  brown, 

sepia,  and  crimson  lake;  or  crimson 
lake  and  ivory-black. 


MIXING     COLORS COMBINATIONS.  67 

If  bay.  Madder   brown   and  a  little   yellow 

ocher,  madder  brown  and  light  red,  or 
burnt  sienna  and  madder  brown,  or 
Indian  red  and  madder  brown. 

If  light.  Either  yellow  ocher,  burnt  sienna,  or 

light  red. 

If  black.  Ivory-black   and   crimson   lake;    or 

ivory -black,  indigo,  and  carmine;  or 
indigo  and  crimson  lake;  or  Prussian 
blue  and  crimson  lake;  or  Payne's  gray 
and  Vandyke  brown. 

Sheep.  Either  yellow  ocher,  Roman  ocher, 

or  Roman  ocher  and  Vandyke  brown; 
or  yellow  ocher  and  a  little  madder 
brown. 

FOLIAGE. 

In  representing  foreground  foliage,  the  first  important 
consideration  is  its  character.  Note  and  sketch  accurately 
its  outline,  its  masses  in  light  and  in  shade,  and  the  direc- 
tion of  its  branches  and  stems.  Remember  that  you  can- 
not paint  in  detail  its  multitudinous  leaves,  but  yet  must 
represent  their  appear  ance,  hence  the  lights  and  shadows 
must  be  sharp  and  crisp.  This  is  effected  best  by  using 
the  color  tolerably  dry,  and  applying  it  by  dragging  the 
side  of  the  brush  on  the  paper.  The  following  combina- 
tions will  supply  every  required  need,  and  in  making 
your  selection,  first  assure  yourself  of  the  distinctive 
color  of  the  tree,  or  its  appearance,  whether  it  is  more  or 
less  yellow,  as  in  strong,  mid-day  light,  or  inclined  to 
red  or  rich  brown,  as  in  evening  light.  I  have  thought  it 
advisable  to  specify  the  combinations  best  adapted  for 
the  portrayal  of  trees  characteristic  of  the  ordinary  Cali- 
fornia landscape,  as  general  remarks  would  not  sufficiently 


68  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

apply  to  such  trees  as  the  pepper,  the  live-oak,  and  the 
palm,  and  I  am  not  aware  that  any  specific  instructions 
for  the  painting  of  these  have  been  hitherto  published. 

Distant  foliage.  Very  distant  foliage  must  be  put  in 
without  any  detail,  merely  regarding 
the  outline  or  form,  and  the  tints  used 
must  be  more  or  less  gray  or  neutral, 
because  it  will  be  observed  that  green 
trees  in  the  extreme  distance  do  not 
appear  green,  but  are  only  darker 
masses  than  the  objects  surrounding 
them.  For  this  purpose  use  cobalt 
blue  and  light  red,  or  French  blue  and 
light  red,  or  cobalt  and  burnt  sienna, 
or  madder  brown  and  indigo  (avoid- 
ing heaviness),  or  sepia  and  a  little  co- 
balt blue.  Sometimes  extreme  distance 
foliage  is  best  represented  by  cobalt 
or  French  blue  alone,  and  afterwards 
touched  lightly  on  their  shadow  sides 
with  rose-madder  or  Vandyke  brown. 

Middle-distance     must    partake    more  of    its    local  or 
foliage  actual  coloring,  but  yet  must  be  kept 

subdued  in  tone  and  show  no  intricate 
detail  of  form.  In  general  sunlight 
effects,  the  parts  in  light  are  well  rep- 
resented by  yellow  ocher  and  a  little 
French  blue;  or  sepia,  yellow  ocher, 
and  a  little  French  blue,  or  yellow 
ocher  and  Vandyke  brown,  or  pale 
Indian  yellow  and  a  little  indigo  and 
Vandyke  brown,  or  raw  sienna  and 
cobalt,  and  the  side  parts  in  shade  by 
Vandyke  brown  and  French  blue,  or 
Vandyke  brown  and  indigo,  or  madder 


MIXING     COLORS  —  COMBINATIONS. 


69 


Foreground  foli- 
age generally 
(light). 

Those  marked  thus  * 
are  for  autumnal  or 
evening  effects. 


brown  and  indigo,  or  sepia  and  Van- 
dyke brown,  or  a  little  lake  with  in- 
digo and  Vandyke  brown.  The  stems 
should  be  "taken  out"  (if  seen),  and 
the  places  then  tinted  with  light  red, 
or  pale  Vandyke  brown  and  red,  or 
raw  sienna.  If  it  is  found  necessary 
to  add  touches  or  washes  of  still  deeper 
tone,  which  become  necessary  only  as 
the  foreground  is  approached,  let  the 
colors  used  be  quiet  and  brown. 

Raw  sienna,  Italian  pink,  gamboge, 
gamboge  and  sepia,  gamboge  and  Van- 
dyke brown,  Indian  yellow  and  a  little 
Antwerp  blue,  Italian  pink  and  Ant- 
werp blue;  gamboge,  burnt  sienna,  and 
Antwerp  blue;  *  Italian  pink,  indigo, 
and  a  little  burnt  sienna;  gamboge, 
brown  madder,  and  Antwerp  blue; 
brown  pink  and  a  little  indigo;  *  burnt 
sienna,  *  Indian  yellow,  *  Indian  yel- 
low and  lake,  *  Italian  pink  and  a  little 
burnt  sienna. 


In  shade.  Vandyke  brown   and   indigo;    Van- 

dyke brown,  burnt  sienna,  and  Antwerp 
blue;  Vandyke  brown  and  French  blue; 
Vandyke  brown,  brown  pink,  and 
French  blue;  madder-brown,  indigo, 
and  gamboge;  *  Indian  yellow  and 
purple  madder;  *  Prussian  blue  and 
lake;  *  French  blue  and  lake;  raw 
sienna,  Antwerp  blue,  and  Vandyke 
brown;  *  Roman  ocher  and  madder 
brown,  olive  green. 


70  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

Several  colors  not  contained  in  the  beginner's  box  are 
mentioned  here,  but  it  does  not  imply  the  necessity  of 
using  them,  only  to  make  the  list  of  combinations  toler- 
ably complete,  in  order  that  the  student  may  at  his 
convenience  use  them  when  desirous  of  extending  his 
knowledge  of  pigments  and  their  expression. 

Pepper  Tree.  —  First  wash  of  gamboge  and  a  little  Ant- 
werp blue;  indicate  the  thickest  masses  in  shade  by  a 
wash  of  the  same,  to  which  a  little  more  Antwerp  blue 
and  burnt  sienna  is  added;  note  the  deepest  small 
shadows  and  put  them  in  with  Vandyke  brown  and 
indigo;  make  the  drooping  stems  of  raw  sienna  and 
Vandyke  brown,  and  the  stump  and  larger  branches  of 
yellow  ocher,  light  red,  and  a  little  vermilion.  When 
perfectly  dry,  take  out  fine  lines  of  light  in  a  few  places 
against  the  shadow  masses  (to  represent  the  sheen  pro- 
duced by  the  sunlight  upon  the  drooping  stems  and 
leaves);  this  can  be  done  very  effectively  by  a  careful 
use  of  the  point  of  a  sharp  knife,  instead  of  using  water 
and  handkerchief,  which  would  frequently  make  too 
wide  a  line;  afterwards,  to  finish,  use  Vandyke  brown, 
or  Vandyke  brown  and  a  little  lake,  or  madder  brown  to 
give  the  shaded  sides  of  the  trunk  and  large  branches, 
also  the  deepest  foliage  shadows,  and  finally,  add  touches 
of  deep  color,  crisp  and  sharp,  to  the  stalks  and  stems, 
where  required,  using  Vandyke  brown,  burnt  sienna,  or 
madder  brown,  or  varied  compounds  of  them.  It  may 
be  found  necessary  to  touch  the  lines  of  light  taken  out 
by  the  knife  with  a  fine-pointed  brush  charged  with 
Naples  yellow.  When  the  tree  is  in  berry,  and  it  is 
required  to  represent  the  clusters  of  tiny  crimson  globes 
which,  next  to  the  orange,  fascinate  the  eyes  of  all  our 
visitors,  it  will  be  found  best  to  first  paint  the  tree;  then, 
after  rubbing  up,  with  the  finger-tip,  some  Chinese  white 
into  a  thick  pasty  consistency  to  apply  it  with  a  fine- 
pointed  brush  (only  using  the  point  for  the  purpose),  and 


MIXING     COLORS  —  COMBINATIONS.  71 

when  the  clusters  are  formed  and  are  quite  dry,  mix  two 
tints,  one  of  crimson  lake  or  carmine  and  the  other  of 
burnt  sienna,  and  (using  a  separate  brush  for  each  tint) 
apply  them  irregularly  to  the  white,  sometimes  using 
the  burnt  sienna  tint  and  at  other  points  the  carmine  or 
lake.  Do  not  touch  any  one  berry,  while  wet,  with  both 
tints;  wait  until  again  perfectly  dry,  then  finish  by 
touching  the  berries  on  their  shaded  sides  with  Vandyke 
brown,  and  unite  them  by  tendril  stems  of  the  same 
color. 

This  may  be  a  good  place  to  emphasize  an  important 
lesson  as  to  the  value  of  shadows.  Supposing  you  have 
painted  your  tree  against  clear  sky,  with  no  surroundings 
but  the  sward  or  pathway  by  which  it  stands,  look  at  it, 
now  that  you  have  finished  it,  and,  unless  you  are 
conceited,  you  will  note,  however  successfully  you  may 
have  done  your  work,  that  there  is  something  still  lack- 
ing; it  looks  bare  and  unfinished,  although  the  tree 
itself  may  be  sufficiently  and  effectively  finished.  It 
requires  its  inevitable  shadow.  It  could  not  exist  without 
a  shadow;  you  never  saw  one  without  its  complement. 
So,  mix  a  tolerably  strong  wash  of  Antwerp  blue,  crimson 
lake  and  ivory-black,  and  with  a  brush  well  charged  with 
this  tint  lay  it  over  the  proper  ground-space  from  the 
trunk  of  the  tree  outward,  and  you  immediately  strike 
your  tree  into  life. 

Live- Oak. — Note  the  "bunchy"  appearance  of  the 
foliage  masses,  indicating  the  requirement  of  more 
broken  washes  than  the  ordinary  oak  and  other  trees. 
The  most  useful  combinations  are :  gamboge  and  Van- 
dyke brown;  yellow  ocher,  Vandyke  brown,  and  indigo; 
Indian  yellow  and  Vandyke  brown;  brown  pink  and 
French  blue;  burnt  sienna  and  Antwerp  blue,  with 
indigo  added  for  black  shadows;  Roman  ocher  and 
French  blue;  raw  sienna,  madder  brown,  and  Prussian 


72  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

blue;  gamboge,  ivory-black,  and  a  little  Antwerp  blue; 
olive-green.  For  glazing,  use  raw  sienna  or  burnt  sienna, 
very  thin. 

Its  Trunk  and  Branches.  —  Madder  brown  and  indigo; 
sepia  and  madder  brown;  burnt  sienna  and  Payne's 
gray;  madder  brown  and  ivory-black;  raw  sienna  and  a 
little  carmine  or  crimson  lake;  sepia  and  Vandyke  brown. 

Palm.  —  Use  gamboge  and  cobalt;  gamboge  and  Ant- 
werp blue,  or  pale  cadmium  and  Prussian  blue  for  first 
wash.  For  the  shaded  sides  of  the  leaves  use  same  wash, 
with  indigo  or  Prussian  blue  added.  Glaze  the  shaded 
sides  with  Antwerp  blue  and  burnt  sienna,  or  burnt 
sienna  alone,  or  madder  brown  alone.  Put  in  the  stalk 
with  burnt  sienna  and  Vandyke  brown,  or  burnt  sienna 
heightened  by  a  touch  of  vermilion,  if  in  strong  light, 
and  mark  out  the  diamond-like  cuttings  with  madder 
brown  and  ivory-black.  Treat  the  lines  of  light  upon 
the  sharp  blades  in  same  manner  as  given  under  "  Pepper 
tree." 


CHAPTER  V. 

ON    BROAD    WASHES   FOR   SKIES,    SEA,    FLAT    DISTANCES,    ETC. 

THE  beginner  finds  one  of  his  greatest  difficulties  in  lay- 
ing on  broad,  flat  washes  without  producing  ridges  of  color, 
or  streakiness,  which,  of  course,  would  be  fatal  to  clear, 
unbroken  sky  effects.  The  paper  should  be  moistened 
while  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees  (and  this  is  about 
the  inclination  the  drawing  should  occupy  during  the 
whole  process  of  painting  the  picture)  by  passing  the  flat 
sable  or  "  sky  "  brush,  charged  with  clear  water,  over  the 
whole  surface,  beginning  on  the  left-hand  top  corner  and 
working  the  brush  from  left  to  right;  a  slight  tremulous 
motion  of  the  hand  during  the  process  will  help  the  paper 
to  absorb  the  water,  and  after  carrying  the  brush  across 
the  surface  it  should  be  again  quickly  charged  with  water, 
and  be  placed  just  at  the  lower  edge  of  the  last  wash,  so 
as  to  catch  the  deposit  of  moisture  there,  and  so  carried 
across  infcas  rapid  succession  as  possible,  until  the  whole 
surface  is  moistened. 

Two  or  three  minutes  should  be  allowed  to  elapse,  in 
order  that  the  paper  may  thoroughly  absorb  the  moisture, 
and  then,  while  it  is  still  damp,  but  having  no  floating 
water  on  its  surface,  there  should  be  passed  over  it,  in  the 
same  manner,  an  orange  wash  composed  of  yellow  ocher 
and  light  red, — if  the  picture  is  to  be  an  ordinary  sun- 
light effect,  —  or  of  yellow  ocher  and  Indian  red  or  mad- 
der brown  if  the  effect  is  to  be  somber  or  gray.  Now, 
here  it  is  necessary  to  emphasize  the  above  instruction 
about  the  exercise  of  extreme  care  to  prevent  too  much 
moisture  floating  at  the  lower  edge  of  each  successive 
wash  across  the  paper,  for  should  the  color  be  allowed  to 
float  too  heavily,  it  will  break  away  an4  trickle  in  a  line 
down  the  paper,  which  line  would  be  seen  forever  after- 
wards, however  many  washes  the  drawing  might  there- 

73 


74  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

after  receive.  As  this  accident  is  a  common  one  with 
beginners,  and  as  the  successful  operation  of  laying  flat 
or  graduated  washes  is  the  secret  of  much  of  the  charm 
of  water-color  pictures,  the  student  will  do  well  to  prac- 
tice this  method  diligently  at  the  beginning,  and  in  a  few 
days  it  will  become  an  easy  matter.  It  will  be  found 
advisable  at  times,  when  it  is  seen  the  brush  is  too  full, 
to  touch  it  to  a  damp  sponge,  which  will  absorb  some  of 
the  superfluous  wash. 

One  word  more  on  this  important,  although  apparently 
very  simple,  process  of  laying  a  perfectly  flat  wash:  In 
continuing  the  color  downwards,  let  the  newly  charged 
brush  only  touch  the  floating  color  in  the  previous  line, 
so  as  to  blend  it;  don't  rub  the  brush  up  into  the  past 
color  space.  Should  it  be  found  that  the  paper  seems 
greasy,  and  refuses  to  accept  the  wash  easily,  just  add 
three  drops  of  ox-gall  to  the  water  in  use  (say  to  half  a 
tumblerful). 

The  use  of  the  above  wash  of  neutral  orange  (see  Chap- 
ter III,  under  Orange  Vermilion)  serves  in  a  remarkable 
degree  to  preserve  atmosphere  in  the  picture,  as  it  slightly 
breaks  the  subsequent  layers  of  color,  and  prevents  crude- 
ness.  Now,  suppose  the  sky.  to  be  represented  is  an  ordi- 
nary blue  sky  with  a  broken  line  or  two  of  soft  light 
clouds.  Make  a  wash  of  cobalt  blue  of  the  desired 
strength,  always  taking  care  that  you  make  wash  enough 
to  cover  your  sky-space,  —  as  it  would  be  difficult  to  make 
a  second  of  the  exact  tone  if  you  ran  short,  —  and  begin- 
ning at  the  top  left-hand  corner,  carry  it  over  all  the 
paper  representing  sky-space,  except  the  parts  of  light 
clouds,  and  when  you  reach  the  horizon,  apply  to  the 
lowest  edge  of  the  wash  a  piece  of  thick  blotting-paper  to 
absorb  the  moisture;  do  not  press  the  blotting  on  the 
color,  only  touch  its  edge,  and  so  draw  the  superfluous 
moisture  down  into  the  blotting;  this  will  be  found  to 
slightly  reduce  the  tone  of  blue  at  and  near  the  horizon. 
Before  using  this  wash,  however,  and  when  the  orange 


BROAD    WASHES.  75 

wash  is  perfectly  dry,  go  over  the  whole  surface  with  clear 
water,  as  in  the  first  instance.  This  answers  two  purposes: 
1.  It  removes  any  small  particles  of  orange  color  which 
have  not  been  absorbed  into  the  paper,  and  which,  if  not 
so  removed,  would  depreciate  the  purity  of  any  after 
washes;  and  2.  It  prepares  the  paper  again  to  receive 
the  cobalt  without  causing  lines  or  ridges,  which  would 
probably  occur  if  the  cobalt  were  applied  to  the  paper 
when  dry.  Should  it  be  found  that  the  cobalt,  when  dry, 
is  not  of  the  desired  strength,  repeat  the  wash  (or  a 
diluted  one)  after  clear  water,  as  at  first. 

The  clouds  may  next  be  put  in  (the  blue  being  dry) 
with  a  slight  wash  of  Naples  yellow  tinged  with  vermilion. 
When  this  is  dry,  go  over  the  whole  again  with  water, 
which  will  tend  to  soften  the  edges  of  the  clouds;  this  last 
water-bath  should  be  brought  down  over  the  entire  paper. 

FOR   GRADUATED     WASHES  —  USEFUL     IN     SOFT     SUNRISE   AND 
SUNSET   EFFECTS. 

After  the  preliminary  orange  wash,  which  for  morning 
should  have  the  slightest  touch  of  red  only,  and  for  even- 
ing an  addition  of  a  small  quantity  of  cadmium  in  the 
space  just  above  the  horizon,  mix  a  wash  of  cadmium  or 
chrome  yellow  and  commence  at  the  top,  as  usual,  with 
clear  water,  bringing  it  down  over  one  third  of  the  sky, 
or  a  little  beyond;  then  let  the  water-brush  be  dipped  in 
the  yellow  wash  without  thoroughly  becoming  charged 
with  the  full  strength  of  the  color,  and  blend  into  the 
water-line  right  across  the  paper;  at  the  next  free  dip  of 
the  brush  into  the  color  it  will  become  charged  with  the 
full  strength  of  yellow;  blend  it  into  the  last  application 
in  the  usual  manner,  and  so  on  down  to  a  short  distance 
from  the  horizon;  then  dip  the  brush  in  clear  water  so  as 
to  reduce  the  color-strength  again,  and  so  on  with  each 
successive  application,  and  the  result  will  be  a  soft 
graduated  tint  from  light  orange  to  pale  yellow,  deep 
yellow,  pale  yellow  again,  into  the  orange  below;  when 


76  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

dry,  apply  clear  water,  as  usual;  then  when  the  paper  is 
almost  dry,  turn  the  drawing-board  upside  down  and 
begin  at  the  top  (which  is  the  base  of  the  picture)  with 
clear  water,  and  bring  it  down  to  where  the  yellow  was 
first  commenced,  and  at  this  point  commence  a  tint  of 
cobalt  blue  to  which  is  added  a  touch  of  vermilion,  and 
carry  this  tint  right  on  over  the  upper  sky.  When  dry, 
and  after  the  clear  wash,  again  repeat  this  process,  with 
less  vermilion  than  before,  and  blending  it  into  the  water 
a  little  lower  in  the  sky, — that  is,  let  it  be  commenced 
over  the  pale  yellow  tint,  —  and  the  result,  when  dry, 
will  be  a  pearly  upper  blue  graduating  into  an  almost 
imperceptible  tender  green,  and  then  into  the  transparent 
yellow  and  pale  tint  near  the  horizon.  Be  sure  the  board 
is  not  reversed  while  the  paper  is  wet. 

A  few  soft,  purple  clouds  may  now  be  touched  in  near 
the  upper  sky,  and  these  may  be  composed  of  carmine  or 
crimson  lake,  and  ultramarine  or  French  blue,  of  moderate 
strength  only.  Across  the  lowest  sky  may  now  be  put  in 
the  crimson  or  purple  lake  colored  clouds,  which  so  fre- 
quently are  seen  in  combination  with  such  an  effect,  and 
these  are  accomplished  by  using  in  moderate  or  full 
strength,  as  the  occasion  requires,  either  crimson  lake, 
crimson  lake  and  carmine,  or  purple  lake.  Against  such 
a  sky  a  broken  mass  of  deep  foliage,  composed  of  Vandyke 
brown,  Indian  yellow,  and  indigo  or  French  blue,  is  very 
effective. 

A  quiet  graduated  morning  effect  may  be  secured  by 
washes  in  the  same  manner,  by  using  the'following  tints: 
Naples  yellow  and  a  touch  of  gamboge,  for  the  light  por- 
tion; cobalt  blue  and  ivory-black,  or  cobalt  blue  and 
lampblack,  or  cobalt  blue  and  Payne's  gray,  with  a  particle 
of  indigo  added,  for  the  upper  sky  (a  very  weak  wash), 
and  the  lower  sky  bearing  a  layer  of  clouds  with  sharp 
broken  edges,  composed  of  Payne's  gray  and  indigo,  very 
thin,  to  which  should  be  added  a  bit  of  Chinese  white, 
say,  about  the  size  of  two  pins'  heads  for  a  drawing 


BROAD    WASHES.  77 

12x9  inches.  The  white  is  added  for  two  purposes: 
First,  because,  being  opaque,  it  will  operate  to  prevent 
the  bluish  gray  wash  turning  green  in  contact  with  the 
pale  yellow  light  upon  which  it  is  placed,  and  next, 
because  its  opacity  will  help  to  give  the  cold,  lifeless 
appearance  to  the  lower  clouds  or  mists,  which  the  sun  is 
not  strong  enough  to  permeate. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  student  who  prac- 
tices these  two  combinations  of  sky-color  and  methods  a 
few  times  will  be  rewarded  by  a  facility  in  the  execution 
of  broad  and  graduated  washes,  as  well  as  by  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  power  of  water-color  to  represent  atmos- 
phere to  an  extent  far  beyond  his  expectations. 

It  will  sometimes  be  found,  even  after  the  utmost  care 
has  been  exercised,  that  slight  lines  of  color  are  formed, 
called  streakiness,  and  frequently  they  can  be  modified, 
during  the  process  of  washing  off  with  clear  water,  by 
repeated  applications  of  the  brush  across  the  lines  or 
streaks.  When  once  a  space  is  covered  by  color,  do  not 
go  back  over  it  with  another  wash  while  it  is  wet;  if  it 
requires  strengthening,  wait  until  it  is  quite  dry.  Every 
time  the  brush  is  carried  to  the  palette  for  color,  quickly 
mix  the  wash,  or  a  sediment  will  form  and  the  wash  on 
the  paper  be  uneven. 

In  painting  masses  of  graduated  color,  such  as  round 
masses  of  cloud,  the  lightest  tint  of  the  mass  should  be 
painted  first  and  carried  all  over  it;  when  this  is  dry,  the 
next  or  half  tints  should  be  put  upon  it,  and  so  on  until 
the  deepest  tints  are  put  in  with  small  decided  touches. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

ON    VARIOUS    MEANS   AND    METHODS. 

IN  the  last  chapter  sufficient  emphasis  has  been  laid 
on  the  necessity  of  allowing  each  successive  wash  to  dry 
before  applying  the  next,  and  of  keeping  the  color  on 
the  palette  constantly  stirred  to  prevent  formation  of 
sediment,  also,  that,  to  insure  delicacy  and  uniformity  in 
all  large  washes,  such  as  skies  and  distances,  clear  water 
should  be  used  between  the  washes.  Blotting-paper 
may  be  used  to  absorb  the  superfluous  moisture  of  this 
clear  wash  by  pressing  it  evenly  over  the  entire  surface, 
thereby  leaving  the  paper  ready  at  once  to  receive  the 
next  wash,  and  saving  time. 

High  Lights. — Clear  and  sharp  lights,  such  as  the 
silvery  edges  of  some  clouds,  or  the  reflection  of  same  in 
water,  or  any  object  catching  bright  light,  should,  when 
possible,  be  left  out;  that  is,  the  spaces  should  not 
receive  the  first  or  succeeding  washes;  but  if  they  are 
only  half-lights,  being  soft  and  indistinct,  then  they  may 
be  passed  over  with  the  wash,  and  blotting-paper  pressed 
upon  the  spaces  immediately  to  absorb  the  color. 

Use  of  Sponge  and  Blotting  in  Softening  or  Rounding 
Masses  of  Color,  Producing  Half -Lights,  etc.  —  Where  it  is 
desirable  to  soften  the  edges  of  a  mass,  or,  say,  to  gradu- 
ate the  color  in  clouds,  let  the  sponge  be  squeezed  as 
dry  as  possible  and  applied  carefully  to  the  parts  required 
to  be  lightened,  constantly  after  every  touch  turning  the 
sponge  a  little,  so  as  to  apply  a  clean  surface  at  every 
application  to  the  color.  If  the  sponge  is  of  a  fine  fiber 
and  squeezed  sufficiently  dry,  the  effect  will  be  very 
satisfactory.  For  small  spaces  the  blotting  may  be  sub- 
stituted for  the  sponge,  applying  its  edge  to  the  part. 

78  " 


VARIOUS    MEANS    AND    METHODS.  79 

Sometimes  the  desired  gradation  of  tone  can  be  secured 
best  by  applying  the  brush  to  the  moist  color,  after 
squeezing  it  through  the  sponge.  Either  of  these  methods 
may  be  adopted  in  representing  light  reflections  in  still 
water  (used  perpendicularly),  which  will  produce  a 
pretty  and  very  truthful  transparent  effect,  if,  when  dry, 
a  line  or  two  of  light  and  sky  color  are  drawn  horizon- 
tally across  them.  The  sponge  is  also  useful,  when  the 
surface  of  the  drawing  is  dry,  to  remove  too  heavy 
patches  of  color,  but  it  is  advisable  again  to  enforce  the 
precaution  of  squeezing  it  as  dry  as  possible  before  every 
application  to  the  paper;  after  being  so  squeezed,  it  will 
still  retain  moisture  enough  for  the  purpose. 

To  Take  out  Lights  and  Half-Lights.  —  When  the  color 
is  quite  dry,  touch  the  parts  intended  to  be  taken  out 
with  a  brush  charged  moderately  with  water,  allow  the 
moisture  to  stay  on  the  paper  a  few  seconds,  then  apply 
blotting-paper,  and  quickly  rub  the  part  with  an  old  silk 
or  other  soft  rag;  do  not  rub  hard,  but  briskly,  and  if 
sufficient  color  is  not  removed  by  the  first  application, 
repeat  the  water  and  again  rub  lightly.  By  careful  use 
of  this  method,  quite  a  series  of  modified  tones  can  be 
produced  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  light. 

Lines  of  light  on  still  water, 

Flecks  and  masses  of  sea-foam, 

Sharp  grasses  .and  broken  herbage, 

Gates  and  palings, 

Rocks  and  stones, 

Light  branches  of  trees,  when  they  stand  against 

masses  of  shadow  foliage, 

and  many  other  forms,  can  be  produced  quickly  in  this 
way.  The  spaces  from  which  the  color  has  thus  been 
wholly  or  partially  removed  may  then  be  glazed  over 
with  their  local  color,  taking  care  not  to  disturb  the 
color  of  the  surrounding  parts.  Sometimes  the  point  of 


80  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

a  sharp  knife  is  best  to  take  out  a  very  fine  high  light. 
It  is  seldom  that  sea-foam  can  be  adequately  represented 
without  the  addition  of  Chinese  white  worked  irregularly 
over  the  spaces  so  worked  upon. 

Sea-gulls  against  a  sky  should  never  be  "  taken  out," 
for  fear  of  injuring  the  tender  purity  of  the  sky;  they 
should  always  be  put  in  with  Chinese  white  and  their 
under  parts  touched,  when  dry,  with  shadow  color. 

A  Good  Illustrative  Example  of  "Taking  Out."  —  Sup- 
pose it  is  desired  to  represent  a  mass  of  broken  rocks  or 
sea-cliff,  their  cracks  and  broken  edges,  and  infinite  angles 
of  surfaces  in  light  and  shade,  appearing  to  defy  the 
possibility  of  reproduction.  Draw  the  mass  without 
reference  to  detail;  next,  discern  the  few  masses  of  light 
and  shadow  covering  the  whole,  and  draw  outlines  of 
these;  then  look  for  the  direction  which  the  chief  mark- 
ings or  cracks  of  the  entire  mass  take, — that  is,  whether 
perpendicular,  horizontal,  or  oblique;  now  cover  the 
entire  space  with  a  wash,  say  of  sepia,  tinged  with  light 
red,  rather  light;  next  cover  the  shadow  portions  with  a 
similar  wash,  strengthened  by  adding  more  sepia;  then 
put  in  a  few  markings  of  cracks,  etc.,  in  the  required 
direction,  to  indicate  the  character  of  the  rock;  next  put 
in,  with  a  little  stronger  color  still,  the  deepest  or  darkest 
cracks  or  fissures,  and  when  dry  proceed  to  take  out 
lights  and  half-lights  in  varied  degrees;  to  still  further 
increase  the  effect  of  brokenness  and  detail,  pass  the 
brush  charged  with  a  thin  wash  of  vermilion  and  cobalt 
blue  over  some  of  the  taken-out  spaces  in  the  portion  of 
the  mass  in  light,  and  with  a  wash  of  crimson  lake  and 
indigo  in  the  shadow  portion.  When  dry,  add  a  few 
final  touches  where  it  may  be  necessary  to  give  sharpness 
and  shadow,  and  the  effect  will  be  one  of  detail  and 
multiplicity,  beyond  anything  which  could  be  obtained 
by  the  most  laborious  "  niggling." 


VARIOUS    MEANS    AND    METHODS.  81 

Scumbling. — The  effect  of  distance,  where  objects  are 
indistinctly  seen  through  the  intervening  vapor,  and 
the  same  effect  in  gorges  and  deep  canons,  can  be  pro- 
duced by  scumbling,  which  is  executed  in  the  following 
manner:  Rub  a  little  Chinese  white  and  neutral  gray 
color  thoroughly  together  with  as  little  water  as  possible, 
and  when  they  are  perfectly  mixed,  with  a  stiff  brush 
rub  the  color  over  and  into  the  too  distinct  objects  in 
the  distance  or  chasm,  with  a  circular  motion  of  the 
hand,  until  the  objects  are  partially  obliterated;  after- 
ward, when  the  "  scumble "  is  dry,  touch  the  parts  in 
places  with  light  tints  of  local  coloring. 

Glazing.  —  This  consists  of  passing  a  wash  of  transpar- 
ent color  over  the  parts  requiring  enrichment.  Raw 
sienna,  Italian  pink,  and  gamboge  are  all  excellent  colors 
to  use  in  this  way  over  foliage  and  grasses  lighted  up  by 
the  sun;  burnt  sienna  alone,  or  mixed  with  either  of  the 
foregoing,  is  admirably  adapted  to  give  rich  autumnal  or 
evening  tints  upon  foliage,  etc. 

Never  use  an  opaque  color  for  glazing.  The  opaque 
and  transparent  colors  in  your  box  may  be  discerned  by 
noticing  that  some  reflect  the  light  and  others  absorb  the 
light.  For  instance,  raw  sienna,  being  a  transparent 
pigment,  will  not  reflect  the  light  or  appear  to  shine  like 
emerald-green,  which,  being  opaque,  reflects  the  light. 
Glazings  should  always  be  thin. 

Softening  is  the  process  of  washing  with  clean  water 
between  the  paintings,  to  which  I  have  referred  more 
particularly  under  Sketching  from  Nature.  It  is  sur- 
prising to  what  an  extent  this  can  be  practiced  with  very 
heavy  paper,  such  as  Whatman's  "  Griffin  Antiquarian/* 
and  carefully  selected  pigments.  The  author  remembers 
an  occasion,  several  years  ago,  when,  under  very  inspiring 
conditions,  surrounded  by  several  rollicking,  happy, 
Didsbury  students,  he  worked  up  an  "  Imperial "  drawing 


82  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

("Rest  at  Eve,"  now  in  the  possession  of  J.  Widdicombe, 
Esq.,  Enfield,  London,)  with  severe  application  of  this 
process.  So  severely  indeed  did  he  apply  it,  that  again 
and  again  he  found  himself,  after  successive  washes  of 
tender  sky  and  cloud  tints,  in  the  kitchen  holding  the 
drawing  under  the  full  flush  of  the  water-tap  and  rushing 
to  dry  it  again  by  the  big  kitchen  fire.  In  this  instance, 
the  effect  has  been  flatteringly  alluded  to  by  many 
critics. 

In  adopting  this  method,  be  sure  always  that  your 
colors  are  quite  dry  before  the  washing,  and  never  rub 
the  brush  against  the  paper;  also,  take  care  to  absorb 
the  surface  moisture  by  applying  blotting-paper  as 
quickly  as  possible. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

ON   SKETCHING    FROM   NATURE. 

COMMENCE  with  the  simplest  subjects, — an  old  doorway, 
the  stump  and  branches  of  an  old  tree  having  only  a 
little  foliage,  or  a  simple  cottage,  —  then  advance  to  a  tree 
in  full  foliage,  giving  most  attention  to  its  outline  of 
masses  in  light  and  shadow;  do  not  think  of  painting 
the  individual  leaves,  but  only  to  discern  its  character, 
so  that  any  one  can  tell  whether  your  sketch  is  intended 
for  a  pepper,  an  oak,  or  a  eucalyptus  tree.  (Finished 
detail  of  foliage  is  a  very  advanced  stage  of  the  art;  you 
are  now  learning.)  Repeat  the  tree,  with  a  little  more 
attention  this  time  to  the  edges  of  the  masses  in  light, 
and  give  touches  to  the  edges  which  shall  best  represent 
the  form  of  the  leaf.  In  this  second  trial  sketch  put  in 
the  ground  around  the  tree,  with  its  grasses,  or  pavement 
border,  or  road. 

After,  say,  half  a  dozen  such  sketches,  change  the 
subject  to  a  distant  mountain  view,  putting  out  of  sight 
for  a  few  days  the  first  sketches.  This  will  preserve 
your  interest  intact,  and  you  will  be  able  with  better 
perception  to  revert  to  the  tree  studies,  and  to  discern 
their  shortcomings.  After  you  have  made  your  best 
representation  of  the  distant  mountain, — not  attempting 
to  put  in  all  the  detail  of  the  intervening  landscape, — 
mark  out  the  principal  features  of  it,  and  indicate  them 
with  as  much  freedom  of  touch  as  you  can  command. 

ILLUSTRATION    OF    METHOD. 

Let  the  sky  be  composed  of  cobalt,  brought  down  to 
the  mountain's  crown.  For  the  Sierra  Madre  Mountains 
in  an  ordinary  afternoon  light,  use  first  wash  of  light 
red,  orange-vermillion,  and  French  blue.  When  dry,  put 
in  the  forms  of  shadows  with  French  blue  and  light  red 

83 


84  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

(the  French  blue  predominating).  Repeat  these  washes 
if  necessary.  Use  the  last  wash  again  to  touch  in  the 
darkest  markings  of  all,  and  this  may  be  done  before  the 
second  wash  is  perfectly  dry.  The  foothills  should  now 
be  put  in  with  yellow  ocher  in  their  lightest  parts  or 
surfaces,  over  which  carry  a  thin  wash  of  Antwerp  blue 
or  French  blue,  where  green  is  displayed,  and  lastly, 
mark  the  undulations  in  shadow  by  various  degrees  of 
madder  brown,  Vandyke  brown,  and  Indian  red  —  taking 
care  not  to  use  these  colors  too  heavily.  Here  and  there 
will  be  masses  of  foliage,  which  may  be  put  in  very 
effectively  by  a  mixture  of  burnt  sienna  and  French 
blue,  varied  in  places  by  cobalt  and  sepia.  Distant 
cottages  can  be  " taken  out"  and  the  spaces  tinted  with 
the  requisite  colors,  but  some  will  be  left  white. 

Do  not  attempt  to  put  in  everything  you  see,  or  you 
will  make  the  sketch  look  very  weak;  only  endeavor  to 
represent  the  character  of  the  scene. 

For  the  foreground,  use  yellow  ocher  and  light  red  for 
roads;  gamboge  for  brightest  of  the  grass-patches;  gam- 
boge and  Antwerp  blue  for  bright  greens;  Vandyke 
brown  and  Antwerp  blue  for  deep  greens;  the  dark 
touches  may  be  composed  of  Vandyke  brown,  and  Van- 
dyke brown  and  crimson  lake,  in  various  degrees  of 
strength.  When  dry,  the  foreground  (if  the  appearance 
of  the  herbage  is  very  sappy,  as  after  rain)  may  be 
glazed  in  some  places  with  thin  raw  sienna  or  Italian 
pink. 

Now,  having  made  several  sketches,  giving  to  them 
more  or  less  finish  at  home,  we  venture  to  predict  that 
on  your  examination  of  them,  and  comparing  them  with 
copies  which  you  may  previously  have  made  from 
colored  studies,  you  will  be  struck  by  the  absence  of 
force  in  your  sketches,  which  the  finished  copies  possess. 
This  is  inevitable  at  the  beginning,  for  you  cannot,  at 
this  early  stage,  be  expected  to  see  everything  which 
exists  in  the  scene  which  a  more  practiced  eye  will 


SKETCHING    FROM    NATURE.  85 

discern,  many  of  which  he  discerns  because  he  knows 
beforehand  they  must  be  there.  You  have  made  the  grass 
all  green,  whereas  there  were  bits  of  brilliant  light  stand- 
ing against  deep  shadow  masses,  and  patches  of  red 
earth  peeping  between  slender  blades,  which,  if  seen  by 
you  and  inserted  in  your  sketch,  would  have  transformed 
your  tame  green  meadow.  You  looked  upon  that  mass 
of  rock  and  saw  that  it  was  gray,  and  so  you  painted  it 
gray,  and  put  more  gray  upon  its  shadow  side,  with 
deeper  markings  still  of  gray  for  crevices  and  hollows; 
whereas,  in  reality,  there  were  here  and  there  touches  of 
deeper,  richer  color,  and  out  of  the  gray  there  sparkled 
little  lights,  reflected  by  sharp  angles  and  atoms  of  spar. 
Again,  you  saw  the  tree  was  green  and  its  branches  and 
stems  a  pale  brown,  but  did  not  observe  the  streaks  of 
richer,  darker  browns  at  intervals  where  the  bark  was 
broken,  or  where  knots  cast  pretty  shadows;  nor  the 
lines  of  high  light  where  the  sun  caught  the  edges;  nor 
the  brown  shadows  in  the  foliage  masses,  with  their  outer 
edges  sometimes  quite  dark  against  the  tender  sky,  or 
silvery  gray  of  a  distant  mountain.  You  will  be  always 
looking  for  these  things  now,  and  rapidly  your  work  will 
lose  its  insipidity  and  " greenery"  and  become  strong  by 
the  use  of  colors  which  you  at  first  overlooked. 

Perhaps  this  is  the  best  place  to  emphasize  a  fact  or  a 
law  which  should  always  be  in  your  recollection,  and 
which  must  guide  you  in  a  general  way  on  all  occasions 
of  landscape-work. 

Distance  always  par  takes  of  a  bluish  tint,  —  green  trees, 
drab  houses,  red  roofs,  gray  mountains,  all  become 
bluish  gray  in  the  extreme  distance,  and  so  you  must 
paint  them.  Middle  distance  partakes  more  or  less  of 
soft,  warm  light,  which  is  represented  best  by  yellow 
ocher  and  Vandyke  brown,  and  these  two  colors  will  be 
found  very  useful  in  painting  extensive  flat  middle  dis- 
tances, such  as  prevail  in  this  country.  (Not  mixed  at 


86  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

all  times,  but  working  the  brown  over  the  yellow  to 
express  lines  of  herbage,  indentations  of  surface,  etc.) 
Foregrounds  must  be  full  of  strength, — this  need  not 
imply  strong  or  thick  color  always,  because  strength  can 
be  created  by  contrast.  For  instance,  imagine  a  fore- 
ground being  an  uncultivated  yard  of  a  simple  cottage. 
Paint  the  ground  with  yellow  ocher  and  light  red,  broken 
by  touches  of  madder  brown,  Vandyke  brown,  and  burnt 
sienna;  "take  out"  a  few  small  pebbles  or  stones,  and 
let  there  be  thrown  across  the  pathway  by  the  cottage  a 
hearth-rug,  or  a  table-cover,  or  shawl  be  suspended  near 
it,  with  prevailing  blue  in  the  pattern,  which  should  be 
painted  in  with  Antwerp  blue  on  the  pure  white  paper, 
and  it  will  be  seen  how  strong  a  foreground  can  be  created 
by  contrasting  thin  washes  of  two  complementary  or 
contrasting  colors. 

Now,  I  shall  try  to  make  quite  plain  to  you  a  method 
by  which  you  may  overcome  a  great  difficulty  which 
stands  in  the  way  of  all  beginners  in  their  efforts  to 
sketch  a  landscape  from  nature.  The  difficulty  consists 
in  first  determining  how  much  of  the  landscape  must  be 
depicted,  and  then  the  points  of  the  foreground  which 
must  mark  the  base  boundary  line  of  your  picture,  and 
last,  but  not  least,  the  relative  sizes  and  direction  of  lines 
which  must  be  used  to  give  correct  outlines  of  the  various 
buildings  and  other  objects  in  the  view  selected.  Of 
course,  to  the  experienced  artist  these  things  are  deter- 
mined by  the  laws  of  perspective,  which  I  am  assuming 
you  at  present  only  partially  apprehend;  or  even  if  you 
are  acquainted  with  the  rules  theoretically,  are  yet  unable 
to  easily  apply  them  to  the  multitudinous  objects  in  an 
extensive  landscape.  In  recommending  to  you  the  adop- 
tion of  the  following  simple  process,  I  must  not  be  under- 
stood to  underestimate  the  necessity  of  your  acquiring  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  perspective,  and 
the  facility  of  drawing  all  objects  correctly  as  the  founda- 


SKETCHING  FROM  NATURE.  87 

tion  of  all  art  study  and  practice,  but  rather  as  a  method 
by  which  you  will  be  materially  assisted  in  understanding 
those  principles  which  when  technically  expressed  are  at 
first  thought  difficult  and  obscure,  inasmuch  as  you  will 
be  able  at  any  time  to  demonstrate  by  actual  sight  (even 
when  you  are  not  using  your  pencil)  the  written  rules 
and  laws. 

Example.  —  First,  supposing  your  intended  picture  is  to 
be  the  size  of  7  x  10  inches  (a  handy  size  for  first  efforts) ; 
take  a  piece  of  cardboard,  say  about  15  x  18,  and  cut  out 
of  its  center  an  aperture  the  exact  size  of  your  intended 
drawing,  viz.,  7  x  10.  Take  your  seat  from  where  you 
intend  to  sketch  the  view,  and  hold  up  the  cardboard  at 
a  distance  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  inches  from  your  eye, 
taking  care  that  it  is  held  perfectly  perpendicular,  and  at 
the  exact  height  at  which,  with  one  eye  closed,  the  other 
eye  shall  be  opposite  the  center  of  the  aperture.  Now, 
what  is  seen  through  the  aperture  is  just  exactly  the  land- 
scape which  it  will  be  best  to  represent  on  your  paper. 
The  rule  is,  always  to  make  the  aperture  the  exact  size  of 
the  intended  drawing,  whatever  dimensions  that  may  be, 
and  to  hold  it  from  the  eye  at  a  distance  just  one  and  a 
half  times  the  length  of  your  picture;  hence,  for  a  draw- 
ing ten  inches  long,  hold  it  fourteen  or  fifteen  inches 
from  the  eye;  for  one  twenty  inches  long,  hold  it  twenty- 
eight  or  thirty  inches  away.  It  would  make  your  sketch 
of  easy  accomplishment  now  if  you  were  to  adopt  some 
easy  method  of  fixing  the  cardboard  on  a  stick  driven 
into  the  ground  at  the  exact  spot  indicated,  so  that  you 
would  at  every  glance  see  the  positions  of  the  respective 
objects  to  be  drawn.  The  usefulness  and  help  of  this 
simple  appliance  can  be  still  further  increased  if  lines  of 
black  thread  are  passed  from  side  to  side  and  from  end 
to  end  of  the  cardboard,  dividing  the  aperture  into  several 
squares;  these  perpendicular  and  horizontal  threads  will 
serve  not  only  to  indicate  the  relative  sizes  of  the  objects 


88  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

at  various  distances,  but  will  enable  you  to  discern  the 
degree  of  obliquity  of  the  lines  of  all  objects  as  they 
recede  from  or  approach  the  foreground,  thus  presenting 
a  very  forcible  illustration  of  the  laws  of  linear  perspective. 

In  drawing  all  objects  presenting  distinct  and  definite 
outline,  let  your  pencil-sketch  be  clear,  sharp,  and  clean; 
do  not  attempt  to  shade  with  the  pencil,  as  it  would 
seriously  interfere  with  the  color.  In  applying  the  color 
—  particularly  the  foreground  colors  —  remember  the  tint 
will  dry  lighter  than  it  appears  when  wet,  and  in  apply- 
ing contrasting  tints  against  or  in  juxtaposition  to  each 
other,  which  is  chiefly  necessary  in  the  foreground  to 
give  force  or  strength,  take  care  the  first  is  dry  before 
approaching  it  with  the  second.  Observe — 

1.  That  the  darkest  lines  and  touches  must  be  used  for 
objects  in  the  foreground,  and  that  they  diminish  in  force 
as  they  recede  from  the  eye; 

2.  That  shadows  are  darkest  at  the  point  next  to  the 
object  throwing  the  shadow; 

3.  That  the  picture  having  strong  masses  of  shadow 
is  much  more  charming  and  effective  than  one  with  weak 
or  scant  shadows,  hence  a  sketch  taken  at  early  morning 
or  in  the  afternoon  is  more  satisfactory  than  one  taken 
about  mid-day; 

4.  That  distances  almost  invariably  partake  of  a  bluish 
or  bluish-gray  tone,  which  must  be  distinctly  preserved 
in  your  color;  and 

5.  That  foreground   objects   must   be   represented  by 
much  stronger  tints  than  are  at  first  generally  conceded 
to  be  necessary. 

To  illustrate  and  enforce  this  rule:  First  look  at  the 
extreme  distance  of  a  landscape  from  a  point  where  there 
are  no  obstructing  lines  or  color  objects,  and  the  positive 
colors  of  objects  in  that  distance  will  seem  to  be  appre- 
ciable; then  move  to  a  spot  where  you  can  view  the  same 
distance  between,  say,  two  near  trees,  or  branches  of 


SKETCHING    FROM    NATURE.  89 

trees,  and  you  will  be  struck  by  the  absence  of  what  ap- 
peared to  be  positive  color  in  those  distant  objects;  they 
will  be,  by  contrast  with  the  strong  greens  or  browns  of 
the  near  trees,  reduced  to  a  hazy  bluish  gray.  It  is  by  a 
careful  recognition  of  this  principle  that  very  effective 
and  characteristic  sketches  can  be  rapidly  produced,  the 
distances  being  broadly  washed  in  with  tender  tints  of 
bluish  or  neutral  grays  and  the  foreground  objects  treated 
with  strong  local  coloring. 

As  it  is  inconvenient  to  attempt  anything  like  "finish'7 
to  work  out  of  doors,  requiring,  as  it  does,  "washing," 
sponging,  etc.,  which  can  only  be  done  with  comfort  in 
the  studio,  or  under  home  conditions,  practice  the  habit 
of  taking  free  notes  and  memoranda,  both  with  pencil 
and  color.  Indicate  certain  spaces  or  objects  in  your 
drawing  by  a  letter  or  numeral,  and  against  a  corre- 
sponding letter  or  numeral  make  notes  of  the  appearance 
or  color  required.  This  habit,  while  enabling  you  to 
finish  your  sketch,  or  to  reproduce  it  at  home  under  easy 
conditions  with  truthfulness,  will  serve  the  still  more 
valuable  purpose  of  educating  you  to  a  keen  perception 
of  color  and  effect,  and  of  emphasizing  the  beauties  which 
nature  is  ever  revealing  to  her  lovers. 

An  important  remark  may  be  made  here,  which  will  be 
very  readily  understood  by  most  of  my  readers,  and 
which  will  enable  them  to  determine  at  times  which  of 
the  several  "combinations"  of  colors  they  should  select 
for  certain  specific  purposes.  (See  Table  of  Combinations.) 
Imitation  of  nature  is  to  be  considered  relatively;  it  must 
always  have  reference  to  the  colors  or  tints  which  sur- 
round it.  This  will  depend,  of  course,  upon  the  key  in 
which  the  picture  is  pitched — precisely  as  in  music.  For 
instance,  it  may  be  pitched  in  a  brilliant  key  of  light 
and  color,  when  all  the  colors  used  will  be  of  that  char- 
acter; or  it  may  be  desirable  to  execute  it  in  low  or  half 
tones,  in  which,  of  course,  its  truthfulness  would  depend 
on  the  relative  values  of  all  its  parts. 


90  A    GUIDE    TO    WATER-COLOR    PAINTING. 

This  particular  quality  or  character  is  one  more  of 
natural  consequence  than  of  educational  acquirement. 
It  marks  the  temperament  and  sympathies  of  the  artist 
frequently,  and  even  distinguishes  at  times  the  nation- 
ality and  sections  of  various  schools.  Let  me  urge  you 
to  follow  in  this  the  dictates  of  your  natural  impulses, 
and  not  to  do  violence  to  your  inclinations  by  adopting 
the  style  or  feeling  of  any  individual  artist,  however 
much  it  may  be  admired  or  lauded.  With  diligent 
practice  for  a  few  months  you  will  discover  your  artistic 
inclinations  and  sympathies,  and  if  you  would  attain  to 
your  highest  possibilities  in  art,  you  will  be  true  and 
devoted  to  these  natural  leanings.  It  may  be  that  the 
smiles  of  open  valleys  bathed  in  sunniness  may  move 
you  to  most  loving  work,  or  perhaps  your  nature  has 
closer  affinity  to  the  shadows  of  great  mountains  and  the 
solemn  isolation  of  crag  and  canon,  or  you  may  linger 
longest  by  the  deep-toned  surges  of  the  awful  sea.  Wher- 
ever your  silent  longings  most  quickly  suggest  your 
pencil,  there  linger  at  your  work. 

It  is  by  scrupulously  regarding  this  sentimental  injunc- 
tion, or  rather  this  injunction  of  sentiment,  that  you  will 
most  readily  acquire  the  power  of  producing  one  of  the 
highest,  if  not  the  highest,  qualities  of  a  picture,  viz., 
UNITY  OF  EFFECT. 

Without  unity  of  effect,  every  other  quality  is  next  to 
worthless.  It  is  this  quality  which  unites  and  makes 
valuable  all  the  others;  it  is  this  which  gives  character 
and  impression  to  the  whole. 

In  the  second  part  of  this  handbook,  Helpful  Hints  for 
Viewing  Nature  and  Art,  I  have  elaborated  this  meaning 
in  reference  to  SENTIMENT,  for  "unity  of  effect"  is  really 
the  sentiment,  or  that  which  conveys  the  sentiment,  of  the 
picture.  For  illustration:  Let  us  suppose  you  are  paint- 
ing a  rural  roadside  cottage  scene,  with  creeping  rose- 
bush or  clinging  honeysuckle  throwing  a  dappled  shadow 
under  the  veranda  roof,  and  green  grasses  throwing  into 


SKETCHING    FROM    NATURE.  91 

brilliant  beauty  the  crimson,  pink,  and  scarlet  clusters  of 
geraniums  and  roses  against  which  they  stand;  your  senti- 
ment would  be  that  of  Home,  the  peaceful  dwelling-place 
of  loving  hearts,  where  alike  the  glory  of  silvery  old  age 
or  the  golden  shimmer  of  children's  tresses  are  in  keeping 
It  would  be  incongruous  here  to  overshadow  that  shrine 
of  human  hearts  by  any  cloud,  or  even  to  modify  the 
dancing  sunlight  of  a  perfect  day  by  a  single  touch.  It 
would  be  incongruous  to  introduce  a  figure  draped  in  the 
stiff  proprieties  of  the  city's  fashion,  but  to  intensify  the 
sweet  sentiment  of  Home  you  place  a  cozy  reclining-chair 
upon  the  shaded  porch,  or  amid  the  emerald  leafage  of 
the  little  garden  plat,  and  perhaps  a  dear  old  "granny" 
in  it;  or  you  hang  a  bird-cage  at  the  open  doorway  to 
suggest  the  songster's  music,  or  compose  a  group  of  happy 
children  at  their  play. 

Again,  supposing  your  subject  is  a  broad  expanse  of 
solitude,  bounded  by  the  jagged  precipices  of  the  ever- 
lasting hills,  moving  you  to  awe  by  its  wild  desolation 
and  its  awful  silence;  then  how  much  more  in  keeping 
would  it  be  to  portray  a  sky  of  solemn  cloud  effects  cast- 
ing their  shadows  on  the  extensive  plain,  than  to  give  one 
of  azure  blue  or  of  glowing  color.  Every  scene  in  nature 
has  its  sentiment,  and  should  be  represented  by  appro- 
priate incidents  and  accessories.  Your  duty  will  be  to 
discover  them,  and  I  confidently  promise  you  that  in  pro- 
portion to  your  endeavor  will  be  your  success  in  the  poetry 
of  Art  and  your  participation  in  an  untold  enjoyment. 


Ivey's  ESS  Studio 

Monterey  and 
Eecetoe*  Pacific  Grove 


West  Side  of  El  Carmelo  Hotel 

California 


intending  to  adopt  the  profession 
are  given  a  comprehensive  course 
in  color  principles  (applicable  to 
both  oil  and  water-color),  sketch- 
ing from  nature,  and  technique, 
on  the  methods  of  the  best  English 
and  French  studios. 


Clfl00Cg  are  held  throughout  the  summer  months. 
C0tttl0  on  application. 


Address 

J.  IVEY 
fttufcft 

MONTEREY 
CALIFORNIA 


Xtfccff 

STUDIO 

MONTEREY 

CALIFORNIA 

Ivey's  Lectures 

FOR  CHURCHES 

LITERARY  CLUBS 
ART  CLUBS 

TEACHERS'   INSTITUTES 
ETC. 
gmbjertg 

1.  Seeing  the  Invisible  in  Nature 

2.  The  Poetry  of  Landscape  Art 

3.  The  Spirit  of  Beauty  in  Nature  and  Art 

4.  Fads,  Facts,  and  Fancies  About  Art 

5.  Pages  and  Pictures  from  an  Artist's  Note-Book 

6.  An  Impressionist  Picture  of  England 

7.  The  Romance  of  Monterey  Bay 

8.  Pen-Pictures  of  California 

9.  Paintings  and   Painters  With  each  lecture  the  artist  will,  if 

desired,  place  on  exhibit  his  port- 
folio of  water-color  paintings. 

These  lectures  have  received  the  highest  commendations  in 
the  press  of  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States  and  England. 


J.  IVEY 

Ex-Art  Superintendent,  University  of  Southern  California 

Author  of  the  popular  handbook,  "A  Guide  to  Landscape-Paint- 
ing in  Water-Color" 

Illustrator  of  "Picturesque  California" 


Mr.  John  Ivey  has  been  connected  with  the  Pacific  Grove  Chau- 
tauqua  Assembly  for  several  years  past  as  the  head  of  its  art  depart- 
ment, and  he  has  appeared  regularly  upon  its  lecture  platform  each 
year.  No  popular  lecturer  could  be  more  warmly  welcomed.  Graphic, 
vivid,  a  master  of  the  richest  English,  a  true  artist,  and  a  poet  as  well, 
he  will  charm  any  audience  than  hears  him. 

REV.  THOMAS  FILBKN,  D.  D., 
Superintendent  Instruction,  Pacific  Grove  Assembly. 


Itoerpool  ((tnj.)  £>ailp 

An  interesting  and  instructive  lecture  has  been  delivered  in  con- 
nection with  the  Trinity  Literary  Society,  at  their  usual  meeting  this 
week,  by  Professor  Ivey,  in  the  Trinity  Wesleyan  Church,  Grove  Street. 
The  title  of  the  lecture  was  "The  Basis  and  Poetry  of  Landscape  Art," 
and  the  gifted  lecturer  handled  the  subject  with  all  the  grasp  of  prin- 
ciple, breadth  of  treatment,  and  fullness  of  illustration  which  were 
natural  in  so  accomplished  a  professor  of  the  art  he  was  unfolding. 
The  lecture  occupied  over  an  hour  in  delivery  and  was  listened  to  with 
rapt  attention  throughout.  It  was  an  address  quite  unique  of  its  kind 
in  the  history  of  the  society,  now  in  its  thirty-eighth  year. 


In  the  afternoon  Professor  John  Ivey,  who  has  delighted  so  many 
Chautauqua  audiences  with  his  walks  and  talks  on  art,  spoke  on  "  See- 
ing the  Invisible  in  Nature."  This  time  he  seemed  to  captivate  his 
audience  even  more  than  in  the  past.  The  same  chaste  diction  and 
musical  rhythm  of  his  descriptions  as  have  always  been  the  charm  of 
his  lectures  were  exhibited  in  a  marked  degree  in  this  talk.  Professor 
Ivey's  work  in  water-color  painting  is  universally  considered  to  be 
among  the  highest  of  the  art. 


Seattle 


"The  Poetry  of  Art,"  by  Professor  John  Ivey  of  San  Francisco,  was 
one  of  the  grandest  lectures  that  has  been  delivered  here.  His  style  is 
that  of  a  true  poet-artist.  One  cannot  but  think  that  he  could  have 
made  a  great  name  in  literature. 

Jrancisco  Chronicle 

The  first  lecture  of  the  season  was  given  at  3  P.  M.  by  Professor  Ivey  ; 
subject,  "  The  Romance  of  a  Year  on  Monterey  Bay."  The  lecturer  was 
in  his  happiest  vein,  and  his  talk  was  marked  by  a  felicity  of  expression 
and  a  delicacy  of  humor  which  were  deeply  appreciated  by  the  audi- 
ence. At  the  close  of  the  lecture  the  public  was  privileged  to  see  a  fine 
collection  of  water-colors,  many  of  them  illustrating  Monterey  scenery 
which  Professor  Ivey  paints  with  such  assured  success. 


(Cuff.)  Cime* 


Last  night,  in  the  Central  Hall  of  the  York  Exhibition  Building, 
Professor  J.  Ivey  of  San  Francisco  gave  a  most  interesting  lecture  — 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Technical  Instruction  Committee  of  the  cor- 
poration—on "  The  Basis  and  Poetry  of  Landscape  Art."  Mr.  W.  F.  H. 
Thompson,  J.  P.,  presided,  and  the  attendance  was  fairly  good.  The 
subject  was  very  ably  treated,  and  the  lecturer's  remarks  were  followed 
with  close  attention.  The  professor  stands  in  high  repute  as  an  artist 
in  water-colors,  and  his  collection  of  pictures  in  the  south  gallery  re- 
lating to  England  and  California  are  fine  examples. 

©regoman 

Of  Professor  Ivey  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  he  is  more  of  an 
artist  in  words  than  with  the  brush. 


List  of  Miscellaneous  Publications 

...OF... 

THE  WHITAKER  &  RAY  COMPANY 

San  Francisco 
Complete  Descriptive  Circular  sent  on  application 

Postpaid  Prices 

Adventures  of  a  Tenderfoot— H.  H.  Sauber         -      -      -       -      -  $1 00 

About  Dante— Mrs.  Frances  Sanborn     -------  100 

Among  the  Redwoods— Poems— Lillian  H.  Shuey       ....  25 

Beyond  the  Gates  of  Care— Herbert  Bashford 1  00 

Backsheesh— Book  of  Travels— Mrs.  William  Beckman      -       -       -  1  50 

California  and  the  Californians— David  Starr  Jordan     -       -       -  25 
Care  and  Culture  of  Men— David  Starr  Jordan      -       -       -       -       -150 

Chants  for  the  Boer — Joaquin  Miller    -------  25 

Complete  Poetical  Works  of  Joaquin  Miller 2  50 

Crumbs  of  Comfort— Allie  M.  Felker            100 

California's  Transition  Period— S.  H.  Willey     » 1  00 

Doctor  Jones'  Picnic— S.  E.  Chapman 75 

Delphine  and  Other  Poems— L.  Adda  Nichols 1  00 

Educational  Questions— W.  C.  Doub 100 

Forty-Nine— Song— Lelia  France        --------  10 

Forget-Me-Nots— Lillian  L.  Page 50 

Guide  to  Mexico— Christobal  Hidalgo 50 

Hail  California— Song— Josephine  Gro        ......  10 

History  of  Howard  Presbyterian  Church— S.  H.  Willey        -       -  1  00 

Life— Book  of  Essays— John  R.  Rogers -  100 

Love  and  Law— Thos.  P.  Bailey 25 

Lyrics  of  the  Golden  West— W.  D.  Crabb 1  00 

Main  Points— Rev.  Chas-  R.  Brown 125 

Man  Who  Might  Have  Been— Rev.  Robt.  Whitaker         ...  25 

Matka  and  Kotik— David  Starr  Jordan 1  50 

Modern  Argonaut — L.  B.  Davis      --------  100 

Missions  of  Neuva  California— Chas.  F.  Carter 1  50 

Pandora— Mrs.  Salzscheider 100 

Percy,  or  the  Four  Inseparables— M.  Lee    -       -       -       -       -       -100 

Personal  Impressions  of  Colorado  Grand  Canyon     -       -       -  i  00 

Rudyard  Reviewed— W.  J.  Peddicord 100 

Seven  Ages  of  Creation 250 

Some  Homely  Little  Songs— A.  J.  Waterhouse 1  25 

Songs  of  the  Soul— Joaquin  Miller 100 

Story  of  the  Innumerable  Company— David  Starr  Jordan       -       -  1  25 

Sugar  Pine  Murmurings— Eliz.  S.  Wilson 100 

Training  School  for  Nurses— A.  Mabie 50 

Without  a  Name— Poems— Edward  Blackman 1  00 

Wolves  of  the  Sea— Poems— Herbert  Bashford 1  00 

LATEST  ISSUES 

Interviews  with  a  Monocle— Leopold  Jordan 50 

My  Trip  to  the  Orient  — Rev.  J.  C.  Simmons             ....  159 

Rearing  Silkworms  — Mrs.  Carrie  Williams 1  25 

Western  View  Series,  No.  i  —  San  Francisco  Views        -       -  15 

Western  View  Series,  No.  a  —  Alaska  Views           ....  15 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
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LD  21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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